Attah won Best Actor (Narrative) award for his role in the movie ‘Out of The Village‘ at the 2016 Tacoma Film Festival (TFF) which took place over the weekend at Tacoma, Washington, USA.
The movie shot in Ghana explores the social and cultural impact of the Ebola epidemic from the perspective of an orphaned brother and his sister.
It won ‘Best International Short Film’ at the Foyle Film Festival 2015, and was produced by X-Menactor Bryan Singer. It was directed by Jonathan Stein.
TFF features internationally recognized, up-and-coming filmmakers as a group where they screen their work and share their experiences. Each year the festival recognizes the best-of-the-best with its TFF Awards.
The festival was established in 2006. Abraham Attah gained international prominence playing lead role alongside Idris Elba in the movie Beasts of No Nation directed by Emmy Award-winning Cary Fukunaga.
Playing the character ‘Agu’ who when civil war tears his family apart, is forced to join a unit of mercenary fighters and transformed into a child soldier earned Attah praise around the world.
He won Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Young Actor at Venice Film Festival 2015, ‘Best Male Lead’ award at the 2016 Independent Spirit Awards, and also Rising Star Award’ at the Black Fim Critics Circle (BFCC). The award scheme called Attah’s role as “one of the strongest and most phenomenal we have ever seen” and added that he had “a very bright future ahead of him”.
The movie was based on the 2005 novel of the same title by Uzodinma Iweala. Shoot in Ghana, it starred Ama K. Abebrese, Fred Amugi and Grace Nortey. The movie was the first fictional feature produced and distributed by Streaming Service Netflix.