The Burial of Kojo, a 2018 drama film set in Ghana, and The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, a 2019 drama film based on the true-life story of Malawian inventor William Kamkwamba, are both up for Golden Globe nominations in the Best Foreign Language Film Category. Blitz Bazawule, director of The Burial of Kojo, excitedly shared the news on social media, stating that the consideration is the first-ever for Ghana.
The Burial of Kojo follows Esi (Cynthia Dankwa), the youngest daughter of Kojo (Joseph Otsiman), as she travels through a spirit land to save her father who has been left to die in an abandoned gold mine. It is filmed entirely in Ghana on a microbudget. It had its world premiere in New York at the Urban World Film Festival on September 2018 and was released on Netflix on March 2019 becoming the first Ghanaian film to premiere in selected countries worldwide on Netflix.
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, directed by and starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, is based on the memoir by the same name by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer. It tells the story of William Kamkwamba who, in the backdrop of famine and a failed government, saves his village from drought by building a windmill to power an electric water pump made from throw-away materials he scavenges around the village. Netflix acquired global distribution rights of the film, excluding the UK, China and Japan, in November 2018. It had its world premiere at the Sundance film festival in January 2019 and was later released on Netflix in March 2019.
The nominees will be announced on December 9.