2010 GHANA MOVIE AWARDS HEATS UP, VOTING BEGINS.

Out of 96 local movies entered, only 29 managed all the 27 MAG nominations announced last Friday.

According to Mr. Fred Amugi, Chairman of the Planning Committee, only one nomination is guaranteed an artiste in the maiden edition of Ghana Movie awards, whose final presentation is on Christmas Day.

This was disclosed exclusively to Hi Newspaper at the Golden Tulip Hotel where a classy party was held on Friday, November 26, 2010 to announce the nominees.

Considering the impressive 2-hour Nominees Party, which was massively patronised by both old and new industry people: actors, producers, technical people, etc; pundits have already predicted heavy expectation this Christmas.

News just in reveals that 11 top Nollywood actors have confirmed their invitation to be at the event, “names would be revealed by next week”, says Gollywood Production, organisers of the awards show.

MAG voting begins Thursday December 2, 2010 exclusively in Hi Newspaper (back poge) and Graphic Showbiz on Thursday, Dec. 2, where movie fans may vote for their fave artistes and movies by texting CATEGORY LETTER and NOMINEE NUMBER of their favourite nominees to the short code 1788 (MTN).

In the list revealed, Leila Djansi's latest film, 'Sinking Sands' continues to make waves in the film industry just few weeks after it was premiered. 'Sinking Sands' received a total of 12 nominations. The lead actress, Ama K. Abebrese was nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role category. The most nominated local language movie, 'Ama Ghana' also received 12 nominations including slots for cinematography, editing, make-up, and effects.

After the party, the usual media critiquing began with a few producers doubting the credibility of the nominations, Hellen Omaboe, producer of Stolen Bible, who had entered that movie, did not understand why some movies with stories she referred to as “copied from foreign production” were nominated.

She told Hi Newspaper: “I don't know if the organizers want us all to film stories that have already been produced in foreign movies”

International movie director, Laila Djansi also thinks there are a few movies in the list whose quality she doubted meets acceptable standards. “Apart from that, I think the nominations are quite clean”, thought she added a lighter correction, “also apart from my name spelt wrongly- Djansi instead of Dzansi”

“The communication team has effected that change”, Hi Newspaper was told by the organisers on Tuesday.

In a related issue, the organisers have announced that Multi TV's flagship movie channel, Cine Afrik has entered into an agreement partnering the Awards show. According to sources, they are offering a deal which includes putting on board major radio stations on the Multimedia Broadcasting network including Joy FM, Adom FM, Hitz FM, Nhyira FM and Luv FM. Also, GTV is a media partner.