Kwaku Ananse to make debut @ London Film Festival

Akosua Adoma Owusu’s film, Kwaku Ananse, which has won numerous international awards, is making its UK debut at the 57th BFI London Film Festival.

Kwaku Ananse is one of four short films from Focus Features Africa First Program being shown at the festival this year.

Kwaku Ananse has received high praise and strong support around the world. It was included in the French Film Academy’s Golden Nights Panorama as part of the World’s Best Short Films category, and also received recognition at the Berlinale, Cannes and Toronto Film Festivals.

At its North American debut in Toronto, Kwaku Ananse was described as “a spellbinding, semi- autobiographical interpretation of a traditional Ghanaian folktale in which the contemporary collides with the mythological in both content and form.”

Owusu says she is “very humbled to be invited back” to the London Film Festival, and she’s excited to share her film with London audiences. Her short film Me Broni Ba (My White Baby) – a lyrical portrait of hair salons in Ghana – premiered at the Festival in 2009 and received recognition from several film festivals that same year.

Kwaku Ananse was produced by Lisa Cortes (Oscar-Nominated, Precious) and Julio Chavezmontes (Sundance New Frontier, Halley), and was created with the support of Focus Features Africa First, Art Matters and the Sarah Jacobson Film Grant.

After its London showing, Owusu plans to take Kwaku Ananse for its second showing in Ghana, where her company – Obibini Pictures – will work to reopen one of Ghana’s oldest Cinemas and use it for an alternative creative art, film and music space.

Akosua Adoma Owusu is also working on her feature film debut, Black Sunshine, which recently won the ARTE International Prize at Durban FilmMart and funding support by The Creative Capital Foundation.