Yemoh Ike and Amartei Armar
Ghanaian feature film, ‘Ego Reach We All’ (Our Time Will Come) has won two major awards at the prestigious Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland, marking a significant milestone for Ghanaian cinema on the international stage.
The 105-minute drama, written and directed by Amartei Armar and produced by Yemoh Ike, won the Pardo for Change. At the same time, Ghanaian actor Idrissu Tontie Jr. received the Best Male Performance award for his role in the film.
The double victory also saw the film’s producers join the Leopard Club, further cementing the production’s success at the festival.
The film premiered at the 79th Locarno Film Festival, one of the world’s leading platforms for international cinema.
‘Ego Reach We All’ is a feature-length adaptation of Armar’s award-winning 2018 short film, Vagabonds, which gained international recognition after winning at the Montreal World Film Festival, an Oscar-qualifying festival.
Shot entirely in Ghana with a predominantly local cast and crew, the film was completed in France during post-production. The production reflects a successful collaboration between Ghanaian filmmakers and international partners while maintaining its strong Ghanaian identity.
The project had already garnered international attention before its success at Locarno. It won the Cannes Focus CoPro Award and received support from the Red Sea Development Fund, Red Sea Souk Award and Red Sea Productions Fund.
The film has also benefited from several international development programmes. Armar was selected for the Heyazah Screening Lab in Doha, while producer Yemoh Ike participated in the 2023 EAVE Producers Programme under a CNC scholarship, with training sessions held in Luxembourg, Austria and the Netherlands.
The project was also selected for the 2025 Atlas Workshop in Marrakesh, Morocco.
‘Ego Reach We All’ features Idrissu Tontie, Dorothy Adobea Tandoh, Emmanuel Wilberforce, Barbara Yong Jin, Emmanuel Owusu Ofori, O’Bryan Kwame Enyan, Gabriel Narh Addo, Nelly Bilson and Kwame Brenya.
The film’s selection and double victory at Locarno represent a major achievement for Ghana’s film industry, highlighting the strength of local talent and bringing an authentic Ghanaian story to audiences on the global stage.
By Francis Addo
