Organisers of the 2016 Black Star International Film Festival have charged business entities to use the event to market their brands as well as to explore business opportunities in the film industry.
The event, which starts from 25 – 28 August this year, will bring together film makers, actors, critics, and investors from across the globe to celebrate the film industry and discuss the business of film-making.
Speaking to Class Business, the Executive Director of the film festival, Juliet Asante, said people should see the business value of films as the platform presents many investment opportunities.
“I think, traditionally, when people think of film, they only see the entertainment value and it is recently that we are beginning to see that films can bring investment, film brings employment, film really uses the cultural identity to engage the foreign market, [to] tell your story, it’s a source of national pride and all of those things put together. Some of the direct benefits will be to those in the tourism market, because when we have all of these people coming, they will be renting hotels, they are going to eat, and they are going to spend money and so, ultimately, those are the direct benefits, but the extended benefits benefit everyone,” she stated.
“I think businesses should take advantage of this platform, first of all to sell their brands because there are many companies here that want international market. …When we opened submissions, we had over 3,000 films and these are people who didn’t know about Ghana, but who now know Ghana and many of them want to come and visit Ghana. And, so, if you have a brand that has an international focus, this will be the opportunity to sell that brand.”
Source: Ghana/AccraFM.com
