The Story⚡
Two of Ghana’s brightest filmmaking talents just put their names on the same project for the first time, and the result is three movies spanning a nation’s entire history.
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On Tuesday, September 8, 2026, at the Labadi Beach Hotel in Accra, Sparrow Studios and OldFilm Productions stood on the same stage and announced something neither has attempted alone: a coordinated, three-film slate built entirely around one date on the calendar. On March 6, 2027, Ghana turns 70. It was the first sub-Saharan African nation to shake off colonial rule, and the two studios have decided that anniversary deserves more than a plaque or a parade. It deserves a trilogy.
They are calling it The 70 Slate: A Cinematic Celebration of Ghana at 70, and it is the work of two filmmakers who, on paper, run in different lanes. Shirley Frimpong-Manso is the CEO of Sparrow Studios, an Accra-and-London creative outfit known for glossy, character-driven drama. Peter Sedufia leads OldFilm Productions out of Tema, a house with a sharper instinct for comedy and mass-audience storytelling. The 70 Slate is their attempt to fuse both instincts into one continuous account of Ghana, told across three separate films and three separate eras.
Two established directors combining resources, audiences and creative instincts under one slate is rarely a bad move, and for Sparrow Studios and OldFilm Productions, it means neither house has to carry the weight of an entire national anniversary alone.
Three Films, Three Timestamps
What makes the slate unusual is its structure. Rather than three unrelated releases sharing a marketing budget, each film has been assigned a specific moment in the national story, so that watched together, they form a rough timeline of Ghana itself: where it came from, how it got free, and who it has become. Here is what each one is bringing to the anniversary:
The Return of Makunse
Opening the slate in December 2026, three months before the anniversary itself, this is a story about migration, about the promises made to people who leave home in search of something better, and about what happens when the diaspora dream does not match the diaspora reality. It is a deliberately present-day film, aimed squarely at the millions of Ghanaians living abroad who will likely watch the anniversary unfold from a distance.
Nkrumah’s Red, Gold and Green
Arriving in July 2027, this is the historical centerpiece of the slate, and the most direct nod to the anniversary itself. The film is built around the final twenty-four hours before Ghana’s independence was declared on March 6, 1957, compressing the tension, the uncertainty, and the eventual triumph of that single night into one feature. Of the three films, it carries the most obvious weight: this is the origin story the other two films are, in different ways, responding to.
I Told You So
Closing the slate in December 2027, this is not a new story but a new telling of an old one, a contemporary remake of Bob Cole’s 1970 music-comedy classic of the same name. Reviving a five-decade-old title as the final chapter of a 70th anniversary project is a pointed choice. It suggests the slate is not only interested in where Ghana has been, but in what of its culture is worth carrying forward and reintroducing to a generation that never encountered the original.
The People Behind the Cameras
The producing team includes Ken Attoh and Araba Sedufia alongside Frimpong-Manso and Sedufia, and the cast list reads like an attempt to put two eras of Ghanaian screen talent in the same frame. Names confirmed for the slate include Fella Makafui, Augustine Abbey (popularly known as Idi Koko), Kojo Boakye, Lydia Forson, Joselyn Dumas, Naa Ashorkor Mensah-Doku, Adjetey Anang and Kwame Dzokoto, a mix of established veterans and rising names spread across the three productions.
For Frimpong-Manso, the project is also a continuation of a mission she has spoken about before: keeping the storytelling rooted in Ghanaian identity while making space for female leads at the center of it. Sedufia, for his part, has framed the slate as a way of using film to mark the anniversary while still building stories that can travel well beyond Ghana’s borders and reach audiences abroad.
Official Backing
The 70 Slate is not a purely private venture. It has drawn support from the National Film Authority, the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, and the Diaspora Affairs Office of the Presidency, an indication that the government sees the project as part of the wider anniversary programming rather than a standalone commercial release. That backing lines up with the studios’ own stated ambitions for the slate: pulling diaspora audiences back toward home, giving tourism a cultural anchor during the anniversary year, and positioning Ghana more firmly within Africa’s growing film industry.
Why the Timing Matters
Ghanaian cinema has had quieter stretches in recent years, with local productions competing for attention against imported content and shrinking cinema attendance. A slate this coordinated, with government backing and a release calendar stretched across the entire anniversary year, is as much an attempt to reignite domestic cinema-going habits as it is a tribute to the past. Each release date appears to have been chosen deliberately: an opener before the anniversary, a historical centerpiece during the milestone year itself, and a nostalgic closer to send audiences into 2028 still thinking about what they watched.
In Summary
Three films, three timestamps, one shared production banner: The 70 Slate is less a single project than the start of a Ghanaian cinematic circle, where studios that could easily have stayed competitors instead choose to build the anniversary story together.
Which of the three are you most curious to see first? The migration story, the independence night, or the remade classic?
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