A film lecturer at the University of Media, Arts and Communication – Institute of Film and Television (UniMAC-IFT), Mr David Nii Ammah, has challenged Ghanaian filmmakers to stop trying to sound like Hollywood and instead discover what Ghanaian storytelling sounds like when it is completely itself.
He made the call during a one-day masterclass organised as part of the Regal Film Festival and Awards (REFFA) workshop at the Silverbird Cinema, Accra Mall, on Wednesday, July 22, 2026.
The masterclass, themed From Script to Global Distribution, was part of the festival’s broader mission to bridge the gap between creativity, technology and financing within Africa’s film industry. It brought together emerging and established filmmakers.
Storytelling
Drawing on his unique position between academia and industry, Mr Ammah presented a five-part exploration titled The Myth, The Architecture, The Design, The Business and The Challenge.
He posed a fundamental question that, he said, had followed him throughout his career: “If cinema originated from Ghana, or by extension, Africa, would we be using the same grammar that we currently use?”
Mr Ammah observed that Ghanaian filmmakers had “quietly mistaken Hollywood for correctness” when crafting their stories.
“The question isn’t, how do we sound more like Hollywood? Perhaps, the question is, what does Ghana sound like when it is completely itself?” he asked.
He urged filmmakers to move beyond imitation towards hybridisation, where something new could emerge from different influences.
“Hollywood itself is a product of cultural encounter,” he noted, citing European theatre, German Expressionism, Soviet montage and Japanese cinema as influences that Hollywood had absorbed and transformed into systems of its own.
“A mature creative culture does not merely consume influence. It transforms influence into a voice,” he said.
Mr Ammah challenged the industry to become an exporter rather than an importer of imagination.
“A mature creative industry cannot only be an importer of imagination. At some point, it must become an exporter of imagination,” he said.
He encouraged filmmakers to ask the producer’s questions: Why should this film exist? Why now? Why you? Why this audience?
He argued that these questions aligned more closely with traditional Ghanaian storytelling than the Western “what if” approach.
“Your grandmother did not tell you a folktale because she suddenly thought, what if a tortoise could talk? There was often a reason,” he explained. “What is society wrestling with? That can be a powerful Ghanaian doorway into global storytelling.”
He urged filmmakers to start from a world view rooted in what they knew deeply, allowing cultural specificity to become “the architecture on which your story is built” rather than something added later.
“Authenticity does not excuse craft. You can have an authentic story and have a bad film. Your cultural core must be transformed into a dramatic experience and then communicated professionally,” he said.
On packaging and market strategy, Mr Ammah noted that “skill is not strategy”, emphasising that filmmakers must understand the different functions of sales agents, funders, distributors, streamers and festival programmers.
“Cannes is not Netflix. A sales agent is not a festival programmer,” he added.
He concluded with an exhortation drawn from 1 Thessalonians 4:11: “Mind your business. Study it. Understand it. Interrogate it. Develop it. Strengthen it. Learn about that market. Master your craft. Know your audience. Understand your culture.
Question your assumptions. Find out what makes your voice different. And then work relentlessly until that difference becomes excellence.”
REFFA
Welcoming participants, the Executive Director of REFFA, Ms Selassie Ibrahim, encouraged filmmakers to be bold in their vision and intentional in their actions.
“Don’t be limited by saying, ‘I don’t know how to write stories; I don’t know where to take it.’ That is why REFFA is here,” she said.
“Making a film is an art of passion, and getting it seen is an art of strategy. Tell your story unapologetically,” she added.
The inaugural REFFA, held in December 2025, attracted 121 film entries from 21 countries.
