The nomination of movie ‘Beasts of No Nation’ and the subsequent win at the Ghana Movie Awards 2015 led to the organizers receiving a lot of backlash from personalities in the movie industry and the public.

Actors Prince David Osei and Eddie Nartey called Fred Nuamah, founder of the awards scheme names based on their belief that the film didn’t qualify because it was a Hollywood movie.

Actress Ama K. Abebrese has backed the assertion by her colleagues in an interview with Jeremie on Touchdown on Live FM.

“It is interesting, when we are shooting I called it an international low budget film feature. That was what essentially it was. The time we were filming, Netflix were not on board. Netflix were nowhere to be seen, Netflix bought the movie I think at the editing scene. I knew there were some Ghanaian producers, Idris (Elba) was one of the producers,” She said when asked about the controversy that followed the nominations of the critically acclaimed movie.

Abebrese, who played the mother of lead character Agu (Abraham Attah), also mentioned that there were about ten producers of different nationalities for the movie.

Ama’s character was separated from her family as a result of war in an unnamed African country in the movie.

“I would call it a low budget international feature with Ghanaian producers, with producers from America, with producers from Europe, it was a good blend. I think it was. Would I call it a wholly Ghanaian film? No… Even the cast alone, Ghana and Nigeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone… the cast literally so many countries. So many people from different African countries. It wasn’t a wholly Ghanaian film, I wouldn’t say that but I do think it was definitely a low budget international film feature.” She added.

Abraham Attah played the lead role of Agu, who when civil war tears his family apart, is forced to join a unit of mercenary fighters and transformed into a child soldier.

Attah won Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Young Actor at Venice Film Festival 2015. He also won ‘Rising Star Award’ at the Black Fim Critics Circle (BFCC). The award scheme called Attah’s role as “one of the strongest and most phenomenal we have ever seen” and added that he had “a very bright future ahead of him”.

Idris Elba played the commander of the mercenary unit. He won ‘Male Actor in a Supporting Role’ award for the role at the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards held over the weekend.

Based on the 2005 novel of the same title by Uzodinma Iweala, the movie was shoot in Ghana and also stars Fred Amugi and Grace Nortey. It was directed by Emmy Award-winning Cary Fukunaga, and the first fictional feature produced and distributed by Streaming Service Netflix.

The movie was premiered in Ghana last year. Before that, it premiered on Netflix and in selected Theaters in The United States of America on October 16.

It was screened at number of prestigious film festivals including Venice, BFI London and Toronto International Film Festival.