Ghana’s ‘Harmattan’ advances to Oscar shortlist for International Feature Film

Director Leila Djansi’s Harmattan, Ghana’s official submission to the Academy Awards, has advanced to the shortlist of fifteen films being considered for the Best International Feature Film category, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences confirmed on Tuesday.nnThe film, shot over nine weeks in Tamale, Nalerigu and the surrounding savannah landscape, follows three generations of women in a Dagomba compound house across seven decades, told through interweaving narratives that skip between 1960, 1995 and 2026. It premiered at Toronto International Film Festival in September where it won the Platform Prize and sparked a bidding war for international distribution rights.nnNetflix ultimately acquired global streaming rights for a reported $4.2 million, the highest acquisition fee ever paid for a Ghanaian film. The film will stream in 190 countries from November 15.nnDjansi, who has navigated the gap between Hollywood and Accra throughout her career, said she made the film for Ghanaian audiences first. “I am not interested in explaining Ghana to a foreign gaze. I wanted to make a film that would be true to itself, and the world found it,” she said.nnLead actress Hajia Fati Nkpayil, a Tamale-born stage performer making her screen debut, has received particular praise for a performance that critics have described as extraordinary in its stillness and emotional precision. Award season momentum is building around her prospects for an international breakthrough.nnShould Harmattan advance to the final five nominees, it would be the first Ghanaian film ever to receive an Oscar nomination.