Metro TV last week hosted this year’s International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences – the New York International Emmy Awards semi-final Judging Round of Events in Accra from Friday, July 3 to Saturday July 4 at the Coconut Grove Regency Hotel. Television and movie professionals from Ghana and Nigeria sat through the judging process as jurors to screen works done in the Telenovela and Drama categories of the 2009 Emmy Awards. Entries of member countries were drawn from Africa, Asia and the Mid-East. Television and film professionals, Kwaku Sintim- Misa of Metro TV’s TGIF fame, Shirley Frimpong Manso of Sparrow Productions and Middleton Mends, the Deputy Head of NAFTI, Richard Mofe Damjo (RMD) and Stella Damasus of Nollywood fame were among the jurors invited for the Drama judging category. Jurors for the Telenovela category also included Korkor Amartefio, Theo Akatugba, Kofi Adjorlolo, Anita Owusu, Emeka Ike, also of Nollywood, and many more. The academy has designated Nathaniel Brendel, Director - Emmy Judging, as the supervisor of the Ghana event. The International Academy of Arts and Sciences is the largest organization of global broadcasters with members from nearly 70 countries and over 400 companies. The academy recognizes excellent works in television programming produced outside of the USA at this black-tie event attended by major personalities from the global television community, and presents the international Emmy awards to programs in 15 chosen categories. These categories are the Arts Programming, Best Performance by an Actor, Best Performance by an Actress, Children & Young People and Comedy. The rest are Current Affairs, Documentary, Fiction & Non-fiction, Drama Series, News, Non-scripted Entertainment, Telenovela and TV Movie/mini- series. After this semi-final round of the event, nominees will be officially announced at MIPCOM in France on October 5, 2009. Results will be posted on the Academy’s website (www.iemmys.tv). The 2009 edition of the International Emmy Awards will be held in November 2009 at New York, USA.