As Malta emerged from the pandemic with the rest of the world last year, speculation was rife as to what we could expect. What would be retained from the pre-pandemic times? How much of the old and how much of the new would guide our lives, our society and our economy.

The expectation and uncertainty was almost cinematic. Which was pleasantly ironic – if there was an industry in 2022 which marked a happy ending of the pandemic in Malta it was the filmindustry.

For starters it was the best year in the last decade, generating over €85 million within the Maltese economy. Our country was a natural home of 24 feature films, TV series, reality shows. Even more positively, our country was chosen by producers from across the globe – the US, UK, Sweden, France, Italy, Austria, Norway, Germany and Egypt.

This success provided employment to 900 Maltese people and 1,000 foreigners. Beyond employment it also meant that active, enduring and fruitful synergies were struck between the local industry professionals and their foreign production company counterparts.

2022 was an exceptionally good year for Malta’s film industry and we intend to make this year even better

This year, the Malta Film Commission will be fully focused on continuing to build on these solid foundations by educating, training and recruiting more crews, as well as attracting more productions.

In conjunction to this, we launched ‘Creative Malta’, a fund to support the local film industry. The kick-off phase will see the distribution of €600,000 to local producers, seeding both their creativity and financial viability.

This fund has undertaken the necessary changes to make it more accessible for local producers. Firstly, an open call system intended to zone in on the local industry’s own requests. Application procedures will be simplified while less documentation will be required at the early stages. For the first time ever, funding will not be governed by the de minimis regulation and recoupment clauses will also be removed.

There’s more in store for this year. Branding Screen Malta will be the new Malta Film Commission marketing tool to refine and power up the promotion and advertising drive of Malta throughout the world.

Clearly, 2022 was an exceptionally good year for Malta’s film industry and we intend to make this year even better. We need to keep our ears peeled. So that now that we acted our local industry can put more of their lights on and roll more of their cameras.

Clayton Bartolo, Minister for Tourism