King Ampaw Honoured

King Ampaw

Film Director is still savouring his initiation into the class of creative African producers having been decorated in Nigeria with the Lifetime Achievers prize at the Africa Movies Academy Awards (AMAA).

The Lifetime Achievers Award is a special honour reserved for Africans who have made a lifetime contribution to the development of film and movies in Africa.

At this year’s event which took place in Nigeria on April 10, 2010, about 2,000 movies across Africa were submitted out of which 18 came from Ghana. Out of the 18 entries from Ghana, five were nominated and three won awards.

But with his rich repetoire, including the famous ‘Kukurantumi - The Road to Accra’ (1983), ‘Nana Akoto’ , ‘Juju’ (1985) and ‘No Time To Die’ (2007), King indeed stood tall.

He has also co-produced many other movies, including the sensational ‘Copra Verde’ (1987), directed by Werner Herzog, in which he played the second lead role with the late Hollywood actor, Klaus Kinski. Others are ‘African Timber’, ‘Anansi’ and ‘Welcome Home’.

is a founding member of FEPACI (African Filmmakers’ Union), FESPACO, the Ghana Film and TV Academy (GAFTA) and the Directors’ Guild of Ghana.

He is currently working on a movie project titled, ‘The Son and Sun of Africa’, which is about the life of the legendary Pan-Africanist, Kwame Nkrumah.

Born in Kukurantumi in the Eastern Region on July 25, 1940, attended the Academy of Film in Potsdam, Germany, in 1965; the Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, Austria, in 1966, and the Academy of Television and Film at the Munich University, Germany from 1967 to 1972, where he studied with Werner Herzog and Wim Wenders.

He graduated as a Film Director with his first film ‘They call it Love’. On his return home, he became a Senior Film Director at the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation from 1979 to 1982 when he left GBC to form his own film company, Afromovies Ltd.