Award-winning filmmaker Shirley Frimpong-Manso says it will be appropriate for Ghanaians to encourage and support the Twi movie industry rather than criticize them.

Speaking at an appreciation event for the MultiChoice Africa Magic Viewer’s Choice Awards (AMVCA), the chief executive of Sparrow Productions noted that everybody – from the Kumawood to the English movies industry in Ghana – was trying hard to keep the industry alive.

“Sometimes I don’t understand why we are actually beating around the bush. Everybody is trying. People are using their own monies to actually keep this industry alive. Otherwise, we will not have anything at all.

“So we need to support and encourage instead of criticizing all the time. For me I think Kumawood is a great initiative. They are not anything that they don’t want to be and so I think encouraging us is even better,” the producer of the award-winning ‘Scorned’ movie stated.

Shirley directed the ‘Contract’ movie which swept over four awards at the just-ended AMVCA in Nigeria. The movie happens to be the first self-produced movie by actress Yvonne Okoro.

She added that movie producers from Ghana would be making an appearance at the Oscar Academy Awards if they had a pinch of resources available to Hollywood.

“For us, we think that if we get even one per cent of what Hollywood uses to do what they do, we can be at the Oscars every year. I will like to take this opportunity to acknowledge my fellow film producers.”

The Contract movie won Best Movie 2013, Best Movie Director, Best Writing (Drama) and Best Video Editing at the AMVCA, placing Ghana high in the African movie fraternity.