Ghana · Creative industry
Ghana’s National Film Authority handles production permits and classification as separate steps. Its April 2025 notice says producers need a film producer licence to submit films for classification from 1 May 2025.
Sources checked
Identify the production and locations before applying. Source 1
Use the film authority’s application. Check aviation permission separately if a drone is involved. Source 1
The film authority says the licence is required when submitting for classification. Source 2
Follow the classification procedure before the film is shown to the public. Source 3
The aviation permit is an additional check for shoots that use a drone.
The 2026 Black Star International Film Festival schedule lists 49 screenings at Golden Eagle Cinemas in Kumasi. Cinema A carried 32 slots across four days. Cinema B carried 17 across Friday and Saturday.
Borga’s production credits connect a Ghanaian partner with producers and broadcasters in Europe. Four German funding credits, festival listings and a 2022 Arte window show the roles different organisations played in bringing the feature to audiences.
UNESCO’s 2021 mapping described a film industry producing about 600 local films annually, alongside just ten cinema screens, all in Greater Accra. Its Ghana chapter also recorded large urban and rural differences in television access.
Accra hosted the first Africa Cinema Summit in 2023 and its second edition in 2024. In September 2025, the National Film Authority held the first National Film Dialogue in Legon. The two formats addressed different parts of the film business.
Ghana’s Copyright Act recognises audiovisual works and distinguishes an author’s economic and moral rights. The Copyright Office regulations set separate steps for depositing a work, deciding eligibility and issuing a registration certificate.
Ghana’s Creative Arts Industry Act puts film and screen among 14 industry domains. It gives the Creative Arts Agency work across those domains, including keeping a register of industry operators, developing the labour market and researching the sector.
A Ghana Copyright Office study estimated that motion picture and video value added rose from GHS 6.93 million in 2013 to GHS 20.07 million in 2016. Radio and television broadcasting reached GHS 188.21 million in 2016.
Ghana’s National Film and Television Institute dates to 1978. The 2020 law that brought it into UniMAC lists nine areas of specialisation. The institute’s published first-semester schedule also shows what students in several tracks study together.
Ghana’s 2016 film law assigns the National Film Authority a National Film Archive function. A separate UNESCO project for Ghana and Mali lists four objectives for protecting and making at-risk documentary heritage accessible in 2026 and 2027.
Ghana’s 2026 budget gives the National Film Authority GH¢106,280 in planned retained spending from internally generated funds in 2026. The medium-term plan rises to GH¢123,900 in 2027 and GH¢148,930 in 2028.
Ghana’s 2026 budget estimates project 700 audiovisual classifications, 200 broadcaster engagements and 30 project matches with investors or distributors for 2026. The plan provides separate measures for work on pitching, profiles and classification.
The National Film Authority’s 2026 call offered ten funding windows, from developing a screenplay to equipping a cinema or taking a finished film to market. The published application period ran from 31 July through 31 August 2026.
A film distributor or marketer in Ghana needs a National Film Authority licence under Act 935. The rules cover who can distribute films and the Authority lists subclasses that vary by activity and territory.
Annecy’s animation market listed five projects in its January 2023 Accra workshop, including two features, two series and a short. Its June programme gave Ghana a dedicated 75-minute pitch session. The market register separately lists ten organisations from Ghana.
Ghana first entered the Academy’s international feature race with Azali in 2019. For the 99th Academy Awards, the official country selection remains a route. A non-English-language film can also qualify for submission by winning one of six specified festival awards.
Last Stop appeared in five categories in the Africa Movie Academy Awards’ 2025 nominations, spanning production design, acting, direction and best film. Earlier records show different combinations for The Burial of Kojo, Gold Coast Lounge and Borga.
Ghana’s National Film Authority says local and foreign filmmakers apply for a production permit for each project before filming. Its guidance lists GHS 200 for a local production and USD 100 for a foreign production. Location approvals, foreign crew work permits and classification sit on separate tracks.
Ghana’s film classification system gives a public screening an age threshold, guidance for parents or an all-ages rating. The Act also provides for an unsuitable classification and a separate process when only part of a film causes concern.
FESPACO selected the 10-minute NAFTI film Ebu / Perdue for its 2025 school competition. Its separate Yennenga Academy list named two Ghanaian participants, including one from the University of Cape Coast. The festival records show how a finished short and individual training could reach the same event.
Nakom premiered in the Berlinale’s Panorama programme in 2016. Certain Winds from the South reached Forum Expanded in 2024, and the Canada, France and Ghana production Paradise premiered in Panorama in 2026. Their catalogue records show different production and sales paths.
Kwaw Ansah founded an advertising company in 1973 and Film Africa Limited in 1977. Festival archives trace how two features from his independent filmmaking career continued to reach audiences decades after their original release.
Ghana’s regulator counted 170 authorised TV services in Q2 2026, with 124 in operation. Both counts were 12 lower than a year earlier. Free-to-air single-channel satellite services accounted for most of the decline in authorisations.
The Fisherman was one of four features that Biennale College Cinema selected for production funding in January 2024. The Ghana-set comedy played Venice that August and reached festivals in New York and Auckland in 2025.
Start here