Ghanaian English Film Industry Is Suffocating, Producers Are Not Shooting Movies

Augustine Abbey aka Idikoko, President Film Producers Association of Ghana

Ghana’s film industry is facing another setback a few months after news reports that movie sales in the country had fallen.

Reliable sources said majority of English film producers were no longer enjoying the monopoly of shooting movies back to back.

In simple terms, English filmmakers are not shooting like they used to do, even though same can’t be said about the Twi movie industry.

Last year by this time, production houses and actors were very busy shooting on set. But it is a different case this year, with this month registering one of the lowest.

The few Ghanaian actors who were busy had their productions in Nigeria and back in Ghana they produced their own movies.

Also, the movies making the news now were shot months ago. Even though there have been pockets of English producers doing something, those are just TV series.  It’s unclear what the problem is.

However, some industry players enumerated different reason including the fall in movie sales.

Others also blamed it on bad decisions being taken by certain individual groupings in the movie industry to represent even non-members of such groupings.

Recent reports said some Ghanaian filmmakers had banned movies from Nigeria and vice versa.

Even though some have denied this, there are reports of an upcoming declaration in some months’ time to either exacerbate or lay the ban to rest.

Majority of Ghanaian industry players who are not part of the associations taking these decisions are the ones suffering.

Interestingly, those making the decision don’t market their movies in Nigeria; so they are not affected in anyway.

Their decisions were allegedly based on the fact that they didn’t get the opportunity to market their movies in Nigeria. As such, they would no longer tolerate Nigeria movies because they are more united and can influence the Ghanaian system to their advantage. 

It is an obvious situation of if they don’t get the opportunity to market their movies in Nigeria, they will mess up the chances of other Ghanaian filmmakers who create their own marketing links to enter Nollywood and also protect their market in Ghana.

credit: NEWS-ONE