Ghana Movie Awards commits blunder by withdrawing Ama K’s nomination

The Jury for the upcoming Ghana Movie Awards has apologized for removing ‘Sinking Sands’ lead actress Ama K Abebrese from the Discovery of the Year category, remarking that the inclusion of the actress’ name was a mistake. According to a press release, the Jury explained that the faux pas was due to a typographical error during the typing of the names of nominees for the media.

I think at this point I can exclaim one of my favourite expressions for the Ghanaian movie industry, “only in Ghana”! What next should we expect? – announcing the wrong name of winners at the awards ceremony on December 25? The fact that the organizers couldn’t even give the right list of nominees to the public after a heavily publicized nominees’ party perhaps proves the point of critics who say that the organization of the Ghana Movie Awards in terms of launching, screening and nominations,  was rushed although long overdue.

From the nominees’ party, it was clear that something was wrong with the ‘Discovery of the Year’ category as the category was blocked with black ink from the brochure bearing the nominations. But it was visible to any keen eye that Ama K Abebrese was not included on that list. To make things worse, the video that was played back at the nominees’ party to announce nominations included the category and yes, again Ama K was mentioned. I wonder what kind of voiceover error that was, because clearly that won’t pass for a typo!

I think that the Jury should have made the nominations stand even if it was an error. After all, Ama K is new to the Ghanaian Movie Industry and his debut performance as lead in ‘Sinking Sands’ was very good – good enough for the same Jury to nominate her for the ‘Best Actress in a Leading Role’ nod. The removal of Ama K from the nomination may sadly go to confirm already spiraling views by detractors that the awards may end up pleasing people rather than rewarding talent. The fact that someone acts doesn’t mean he or she deserves a nomination! As it stands, every Ghanaian actor/actress is on the nominations list. Laughing out loud!

The announcement means that the nominees for the Discovery of the Year award are as follows:

Emoimogen Hogen [Trinity]

Joshua Sarpong [Ama Ghana]

Nadia Acha-Kang [Game]

Diana Pealore [Beast]

Prince Tsega, a member of the Ghana Movie Awards Planning Committee, said the action taken by the Jury should not be misconstrued as a deliberate act of sabotage to the hardworking actress.  “We are deeply sorry for the inconvenience this correction may cause to the actress and any other person that it might affect.”