Film Producers to ban film sales from July 1

Film producers and filmmakers in Ghana cannot sell their films to television stations starting from July 1, 2021 until further notice.

The move is part of measures to supposedly help save the movie industry from collapsing.

This was included in a joint statement by stakeholder bodies in the film industry including the Film Producers Association of Ghana, Film Crew Association of Ghana, Marketers & Distributors Association of Ghana and Ghana Academy of Film & Television Arts.

These bodies reached the agreement at the end of a three-day strategy session organised and sponsored by the Ghana Tourism Authority to understand the challenges and the reasons behind the collapse of the film industry and to enable the various stakeholders to put together solutions to revive the exhibition, marketing and sales of Ghanaian movies, which once was a model for film producers across the world.

“To fully appreciate this and other challenges and how to overcome them to unlock the huge potentials of the industry, it was appropriate to convene the various leadership in the film market (i.e. Film Producers Association, Markers & Distributors Association, Film Crew Association and other stakeholders) to unravel the challenges surrounding the marketing of the films produced and recommend pragmatic steps for its implementation,” the statement said.

“We would therefore like to use this medium to notify all our film producers that; from July 1, 2021 no film producer or film maker shall sell any feature film to any TV station in Ghana to air until further notice. All feature films already sold to these TV channels can show until the agreed date expires and thereafter cannot be renewed. Any producer or film marketer who flouts these directives shall be sanctioned accordingly. All film stakeholders must take these directives seriously and comply accordingly until further notice,” it added.

—citinewsroom