The first ever Ghallywood film festival which recently opened at the Ghallywood African Film Village at Dawa near Prampram is currently running till Saturday, December 17, with a graduation ceremony and an awards night is on the theme; “Films for recreating the African mindset for the challenges of the millennium”

According to William Akuffo, President of Ghallywood Film Academy, the festival is being established as an annual affair and will have all films produced by the graduates being screened for free viewing during the festival. Speaking at the opening on the festival, he noted that some of the movies produced by students of the Academy will be entered into international film festivals because of its quality and the potential they hold.

He said in less than two years after the establishment of Ghallywood, students from the film academy have produced 23 movies, two of which have already been premiered and commended the students for excelling after three months of training. The festival will also reward excelling performers in various categories in productions by the students. There will be awards for best lead actor and lead actress as well as for best supporting female and male respectively.

According to William Akuffo, some media practitioners who helped in the development of the movie industry would also be honoured at the special awards night on Saturday at Ghallywood. Some of them include Nanabayin Dadson, Editor of Graphic Showbiz, Baba Abdulai of The Finder, and Nii Addokwei Moffatt. There will also be awards for best director, best editor and best videographer and some pioneers in the movie industry. The week will be filled with seminars, games, entertainment and of course screening of films.

Ghallywood currently has a training Institution for young people desirous of entering the film industry. With support from the National Youth Employment Programme, Ghallywood’s Academy of Film Acting offers training in Acting, Directing, Editing, Screenwriting, Modeling, Videography, Lighting and Sound. To date over one thousand and two hundred young men and women from all the ten Regions of Ghana have benefitted from training in one area or the other.

As part of the programme, graduates are supported to produce their own films with equipment and seed money. Many films have now been produced and the Ghallywood Film Festival is being introduced as a platform to premier all films produced by graduates of the Academy of Film Acting. Films will come from every Region and from many districts. All of them were written, directed, acted, shot and edited by the academy’s graduates.

Film Festivals are a common feature in all major film producing communities. The film festival is a platform for film makers from around the world to share their new works and experiences. New technologies and ideas are also shared among them. The film festival also presents film makers with markets for their new productions. A film festival is a tourism market and communities that host them benefit immensely. They are to be found all year round and in all countries.