Malta will have a smaller kitty with which to entice film productions to the country next year, after Malta Film Commission’s cash rebate scheme was slashed by €7m during last week’s budget.

Last year’s allocation of €35m has now dipped to €28m, budget figures reveal, a drop of a fifth on the scheme’s overall spending.

This amount applies to rebates for both local and international film productions, but it is the latter which typically receives the lion's share of the funds.

Film commission's operational budget doubles

Meanwhile, the commission’s operational budget has gone in the opposite direction, more than doubling from this year’s €1.8m to €3.8m next year.

And it will also have an extra €500,000 to invest in film productions as equity investment, through Film Finance Ltd, a company set up by the government. Although not formally part of the film commission’s structures, the company is represented by film commissioner Johann Grech.

But the film commission will also have a little less money to spend on infrastructural works, with its budget to upgrade Malta’s film facilities dropping from €3m to €2m

Meanwhile, Creative Malta, the fund which provides support to local filmmakers was moved away from the film commission last year, now finding itself in the hands of Arts Council Malta. The fund has since doubled from this year’s €1m allocation to €2m in 2025.

When asked to explain the drop in the amount allocated for the rebate, a spokesperson for the tourism ministry simply said that “the government remains committed to meet all cash rebate requirements and uphold the stellar international reputation of this programme”.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the film commission said that the scheme’s budget “is in line to meet the Commission's forecasted allocation needs, with the understanding that it remains subject to potential adjustments contingent upon the results of audit evaluations”. 

Malta usually spends more on the rebate than it plans to

The cost of the scheme has soared in recent years, rapidly rising from under the €10m mark to a high of €36m in 2023.

But history shows that what the government plans to spend does not always tally with its final bill.

In 2023, the last year for which actual expenditure figures are available, the government spent a staggering €36m on the scheme, three times more than the €11m it had originally allocated.

Even in several previous years, government spending on the scheme often ballooned beyond what was planned.

Last year, Times of Malta revealed that the production company behind Ridley Scott’s blockbuster Gladiator 2 would be receiving almost €47m through the rebate, although this payout may have been distributed over multiple years.

Allocation could double by 2028

The scheme, once described as “the most generous cash rebate in the world”, has proven controversial over the years.

Last year, Times of Malta revealed that Malta had paid out some €143m in cash rebates to film and TV productions between 2019 and August 2023,

Local film producers are sceptical about the scheme, saying that the scheme is designed to favour foreign companies and individuals, at the expense of local workers.

Authorities, on the other hand, argue that the rebates are crucial to nurture Malta’s film sector and create jobs in the sector.

The European Commission has remained unfazed by criticism of the scheme, last year giving its green light for Malta to double its allocation, which now could potentially total half a billion Euro over the next five years.