Fred Nuamah, the founder of the Ghana Movie Awards, has disclosed that the limited publicity surrounding the 2025 edition of the awards was due to what he described as unforeseen political circumstances related to the event’s venue.
The awards ceremony, which took place at the Accra International Conference Centre (AICC) on Saturday, January 18, 2025, faced criticism over its low-profile promotion and the choice of award plaques given to some winners.
Speaking in an interview with Joy News, Fred Nuamah explained that the government’s use of the AICC as a transition office and temporary seat of government led to restrictions that affected the event’s promotion.
“When we started planning, we didn’t know the government would be using the AICC for these purposes. This caused some restrictions on our ability to attract large crowds, so we decided to keep the event low-key and focus primarily on industry stakeholders,” he stated.
Fred Nuamah added that promotional activities like billboards, TV ads, and other marketing efforts were reduced to keep the attendance low.
“Because we couldn’t bring many people to the venue, we decided to keep things quiet and concentrate only on the industry. Normally, we do billboards, TV ads, and other promotions, but this time we wanted to limit it to a smaller crowd, so we kept it low-key,” he explained.
He further emphasised that the choice of the AICC was due to the desire for a theater-style seating arrangement, which better suited the event’s vision compared to a dinner-style setup.
The limited publicity, he said, left many Ghanaians unaware of the awards until the night of the event, sparking questions about its visibility.
Fred Nuamah duly acknowledged the challenges but has remained optimistic about future editions.
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