Film festival cost around €5m, with guests showered in luxury

Last week’s Mediterrane Film Festival cost around €5 million, as film stars and crews were once again flown into Malta and treated to luxury hospitality.

Actors such as Russell Crowe arrived by private jet, while many international actors, film crews and journalists travelled in business class from the US – often accompanied by their partners – and accommodated in five-star resorts.

The festival came to an end with a lavish awards ceremony at Manoel Island, attended by around 1,000 guests, with performances by artists including Emeli Sandé, who was also flown in for the event.

Held between June 21 and 29, the festival featured public screenings of well-known films shot in Malta, a film competition, and a programme of masterclasses, panel discussions and workshops.

Widely advertised through street billboards, the event is once again being criticised as a taxpayer-funded spending spree.

When questioned about the cost, the Film Commission said the tag was “similar to last year’s edition”.

Film Commissioner Johann Grech initially said the 2024 film festival cost around €3.9 million, but in recent interventions in the Public Accounts Committee and in the media, he revised that figure upwards by €1.1 million.

A spokesperson for the commission said the festival makes a substantial contribution to the industry and economy.

“Rather than simply focusing on the level of investment in the festival – which will be on the same levels as last year and audited in the usual way in due course – fair reporting of the festival must also include the value that comes from the festival and the substantial net contribution the film sector makes to Malta’s public finances,” the spokesperson said.

“There is strong and proven value to the Maltese economy with regards to both the Mediterrane Film Festival and Malta’s film servicing sector,” the spokesperson added.

A history of controversial spending

Since its inception in 2022, the festival has been dogged by claims of lavish spending and a lack of transparency over how taxpayers’ money was being used.

In a July 2024 interview with Times of Malta, Grech said that sort of spending was “essential to attract investment,” describing the film festival as a necessary marketing tool to attract films to Malta in an industry that is increasingly competitive.

During a recent Public Accounts Committee hearing, Grech made similar arguments as he revised the 2024 festival cost upwards to €5 million.

“The economic report for the second edition of the Mediterrane Film Festival is being finalised; with an investment of €5 million, the economic impact was €9.7 million, while the value of social and media coverage amounted to $21.9 million,” he told the committee.

Replying to questions about the €5 million figure, a spokesperson for the film commission pointed to studies and a report by the National Audit Office, “which defined initiatives such as the festival as ‘industry-standard’.”

The spokesperson claimed that for every €1 invested, €3 goes to the country’s economy, and 18 per cent of the economic growth in Malta came through the film industry.

Under the current Film Commission administration, 169 productions have been produced in Malta with more than €635 million of film budgets spent, it said.

A report on the Mediterrane Film Festival in 2024 said the festival generated €7m in economic impact. But a Times of Malta fact-check showed the €7m figure refers to the estimated overall economic activity linked to the festival, including all spillover effects, not the value added by the festival.

The report estimates this at a more modest €1.4m in direct terms, rising to €2.5m when all spillover effects are accounted for.