Having been on ice for almost two years, the Ghana Actors Guild (GAG) awards is coming back with a big bang to honour major players in Ghana’s movie industry.

President of the Ghana Actors Guild, Mr. Nii Odoi Mensah disclosed this in an exclusive interview with BEATWAVES last Thursday in Accra.

“I am sure all things being equal, we should be able to organize the awards this year. But we have not yet set the day. We have been talking among ourselves, so very soon we will take up the necessary measures and come up with the awards this year.”

According to Mr. Odoi Mensah, the award was supposed to have been an annual affair but due to financial constraints they could not organize it last year.

To salvage the situation, he noted that the GAG will be organizing the awards in collaboration with other stakeholders in the movie industry including the Producers Association of Ghana, saying the awards would be herald by a mega film festival.

“What we’re going to do is to have a film festival and awards show. This will be a one week to two weeks programme where producers would be given the opportunity to exhibit their productions and sell them at a reduce price for people to buy. There will also be screening of old and new movies at a particular venue during the festival. The general public will be given the opportunity to vote for the best film, best actor and actress among others.”

As was done two years ago, Mr. Odoi stated that awards can only be given to registered members of the GAG, the Producers Association and registered bodies that would be part of the event.

He explained, “We are doing that because at the end of the day it is the GAG and the other bodies that are responsible for the funding of this awards ceremony. So if you didn’t contribute to the coffers of any of these bodies, how do you expect to get an award?”

In another development, the President of GAG has described as illegal the collection of monies from young men and women who want to become actors and actresses for auditions.

According to Mr. Odoi, if a production house wants to audition people for a movie, it is the responsibility of the production house to take care of every cost of the process and not those being auditioned.

“The production house should be able to provide food, water, refreshment and seats. But some people are taking advantage of this to exploit people. It is wrong and culprits will not be spared,” He cautioned.

Mr. Odoi hinted that they have arrested some people and are still working closely with the Ghana Police Service to arrest the perpetrators of this act.



Source: Beatwaves