Quick Facts
| Intro | Ghanaian film director, writer and producer |
| Is | Film director |
| From | Ghana |
| Field | Film, TV, Stage & Radio |
| Gender | female |
| Birth | 1977 |
| Age | 45 years |
| Profiles |
|
Biography
Shirley Frimpong-Manso (born 1977) is a Ghanaian film director, writer, and producer. She is the founder and CEO of Sparrow Productions, a film, television and advertising production company. She won Best Director at the 6th Africa Movie Academy Awards. Frimpong-Manso is also a principal of Sparrow Station, a video streaming service for African entertainment from Sparrow and other African film producers. In 2013, she was ranked the 48th most influential person in Ghana according to E.tv Ghana.
Frimpong-Manso is described as one who "seeks to raise the standard of film production in Ghana and Africa by telling progressive African stories as seen through the eyes of Africans." According to her, she went into movies to change the way Ghana was portrayed.Her films are also known for their "fierce female leads," as they portray African women with agency who can be breadwinners and lead complex lives.
Biography
Frimpong-Manso is from the Eastern Region of Ghana, from Kwahu Pepease. As a child she organized plays, which "felt a lot more fun than playing with sand and dolls." She graduated in 2000 from the National Film and Television Institute of Ghana and worked as a presenter at Radio Gold, a private station in Accra, and then went on to start Sparrow Productions in 2003.
Shirley is currently married to her husband and business partner Ken Attoh. She and her spouse have a child together.
Works
With producer and actress Juliet Asante, Frimpong-Manso helped produce the TV show Heart to Heart for two years shortly after school. She has also produced:
- Different Shades of Blue - a television series about five university girls who share a dormitory in a university hostel.
- Personalities Kitchen - a cooking program that hosts two personalities and challenges them to a rice meal of their choice.
- The Miss Ghana Pageant - she produced two semifinalists at the Miss World event within five years during her time.
Filmography
| Film | Production Year |
Distribution Companies |
Production Type |
Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Life and Living it | 2009 | Sparrow Station | Film | The stories of four male friends: a musician, a dancer, a doctor, and an advertising manager. "Major themes include love, friendship, and family." |
| Scorned | 2009 | Sparrow Station | Film | |
| The Perfect Picture | 2009 | Sparrow Station | Film | The story of the lives and loves of several Ghanaian women friends, focusing on marriage and societal norms of Ghana that are not represented in Western film. Frimpong-Manso won Best Director for The Perfect Picture at the 2010 African Movie Academy Awards, where her films garnered a total of four awards. |
| A Sting in a Tale | 2009 | Sparrow Station | Film | "A cautionary tale about two Ghanaian men scrabbling to find jobs." It won an Audience Favorite award at the 2010 Pan African Film & Arts Festival |
| Checkmate | 2010 | Sparrow Station | Film | |
| Six Hours to Christmas | 2010 | Sparrow Station | Film | A tale of a creative director whose life was overturned when he was tempted to stray on Christmas Eve. |
| Peep | 2011 | Sparrow Station
TV3 |
TV Series | |
| Contract | 2012 | Sparrow Station | Film | A successful businessman who desires to avoid marital responsibility contracts with a woman to bear his child. |
| Adams Apples | 2011-2013 | Sparrow Station | TV Series | A 10-part serial released during one year starting in April 2011. It follows the lives of four women (a mother and three adult children) in modern Ghana. |
| Potomanto | 2013 | Sparrow Station
Africa Magic |
Film | About "an emotionally sore private investigator who mistakenly stumbles on a case of organ harvesting." |
| Big for Nothing | 2013 | Sparrow Station | Short Film | |
| Stranger in my Bed | 2013 | Sparrow Station | Short Film | |
| Tenant | 2013 | Africa Magic | TV Series | |
| Devil in the Detail | 2014 | Sparrow Station
Africa Magic |
Film | |
| Love or Something Like That | 2014 | Sparrow Station
Africa Magic |
Film | |
| V-Republic | 2014 | Sparrow Station | TV Series | |
| Grey Dawn | 2015 | Sparrow Station
Africa Magic |
Film | |
| Rebecca | 2016 | Sparrow Station | Film | "Abandoned and lost in the middle of a deserted road, an egotistic proper city guy gets a rude awakening when he begins to realize that his only companion, a timid looking village girl who he had been forced to marry only a few hours earlier is anything but ordinary." Nominated in two categories for Africa Magic Viewers Choice Awards |
Awards
- 6th Africa Movie Academy Awards - Best Director of the Year
- 6th Africa Movie Academy Awards - A Sting in a Tale won the Best Soundtrack award
- 18th Annual Pan African Film & Arts Festival - A Sting In A Tale took home the award for Audience Favorite-Narrative Feature
- 2014 Africa Magic Viewers Choice Awards - Best Video Editor and Best Movie Director
