Editorial

The commercial success of films like Gladiator, Troy and The Count of Montecristo, great swathes of which were shot in Malta, kindled the hope that a new era was beginning for the film industry in Malta. It had been thought that many films would be shot at Malta Film Facilities and in a variety of Maltese locations, including high-budget works that would add to the island's prestige as a film-shooting centre.

But we have now been told not to become optimistic on the strength of a few notable successes. The international film industry is peopled with cutthroats and hardnosed businessmen for whom the past, as the financial advertisements are made to say, is no guarantee of the future and therefore who have to be wooed and wheedled every time they are looking for convenient film facilities.

It has been announced that 2004 has been a very poor year for filming in this country with the lowest number of shooting days in recent years. No film of any note was shot here, those actually shot being a low-budget Canadian film, parts of a BBC docu-drama series and a few commercials. No wonder the Film Commission and the Producer's Creative Partnership, which represents film-makers, are sounding very low, if not quite disheartened.

The weakness of the US dollar has certainly made filming outside the US much more expensive and, despite Malta's fine reputation as a country from which the international tension governing some countries in the Mediterranean is absent, it might well be that some film-makers in the US or financed by US capital may be jittery about filming in this zone. It would be wrong, however, to look at this as the main cause of the current slump and it would be wiser to see whether, and if yes where, Malta is failing to entice film-makers to its shores.

The main problem, it seems, is the insufficient attractiveness of the financial incentives being offered to potential film-makers. These corporations are looking for rebates on the money they spend in Malta; exemption from, or reduction of, some types of taxation, and so on. What they are already being offered is often not considered sufficient. Film-makers are in a precarious business, so they are always looking for ways of saving money and do not look kindly on, say, local councils that insist on a hefty fee to allow filming on certain sites. This is a matter that could be rectified were local councils to come together and be persuaded to agree on what fees are reasonable and which can be foregone altogether.

The Film Commission and the ministry on which it depends must see why they seem to have failed to deliver what has long been expected of them. Film-makers have often requested the use of sound stages, so far without avail. It would be foolish to expect film-making to depend mostly on the by now famous water tanks at Rinella. Efficient sound stages would make it attractive to film a variety of features and documentaries that producers are now much happier to shoot in other countries.

It might also help if more film-makers were to find out the variety of locations suitable for shooting that are available in Malta and Gozo.

So much was done in the past by so many people to sell this country as an ideal film-shooting industry. It would indeed be a pity if all that is lost. Thus, a fresh effort to assess the situation and make the necessary decisions to attract film-makers is a must.