A fund to support Maltese filmmakers has been quietly transferred away from the Malta Film Commission, now finding itself under the wing of the culture ministry.
The Creative Malta programme, widely known as the film fund, awarded local filmmakers a total of €600,000 each year to finance local film productions.
The fund was previously the remit of the Malta Film Commission, which falls under the tourism ministry. However, the budget estimates published on Monday show that it has now been moved to the culture ministry and topped up to reach €900,000.
Sources told Times of Malta that the fund will now be managed by Arts Council Malta, although it is unclear whether it will retain the same structure as a film fund.
Arts Council Malta typically manages funds for artists across several artistic disciplines, sometimes including short films. However, full-length feature films such as those funded through the film fund are not usually funded by the council.
In a LinkedIn post shared on Tuesday, Film Commissioner Johan Grech said that the fund’s move to the culture ministry was “something we proposed to ensure the effectiveness of public funds”.
Grech described the shift as a “strategic move to enhance the government’s efficiency”.
“I’m confident that this ministry, with its specialised focus and ability to amplify, can add value to the equation to strengthen further these types of productions”, he said.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the culture ministry echoed Grech’s words, telling Times of Malta that “government’s support in local productions that showcase our culture, language, and heritage is indispensable and therefore this decision will improve the government’s effectiveness in this sector”.
Filmmakers who spoke to Times of Malta welcomed the move, saying that it was unusual for the fund to be managed by the film commission in the first place.
Film producer Malcolm Scerri Ferrante said that this is “a positive move”.
“The remit of any film commission is to promote a country or region, facilitate red tape for filmmakers and advise the government on policies related to making the film industry more attractive”, he told Times of Malta. “It is extremely abnormal for a film commission to manage film grants given to producers as this usually falls under a separate entity typically in a ministry for arts and culture.”
Scerri Ferrante said that doing so often minimises the risk of “direct or indirect influence from any persons who do not always have a long track record in the creative and producing sides of filmmaking”.
Filmmaker Martin Bonnici agrees. He told Times of Malta that the move marks the film fund’s return to “where it should have always been”, in a ministry that has “a good track record in nurturing Malta’s creative sector and can set policy and strategy for broadcasting, film and TV”.
Film fund ‘back where it should always have been’
“The film fund was originally under the culture directorate until it was moved by then-Minister of Finance Tonio Fenech and Film Commissioner Peter Busuttil, with little thought about how the Malta Film Commission can handle this new remit, not to mention the need for policy and strategy development for the sector.
“The Malta Film Commission can now focus on the speciality that it was set up to handle, servicing of foreign film productions using Malta as a location”, he said.
The move comes in the wake of several controversies that have afflicted the Malta Film Commission in recent weeks, from revelations of overspending to filmmakers’ concerns over “unusually long delays” in payments.
Earlier still, revelations of the commission’s €143m outlay on the controversial cash rebate for film productions had drawn criticism from many quarters. Meanwhile, the commission’s lavish spending on the Malta Film Awards in 2022 led many local filmmakers to boycott the awards entirely.
In the meantime, reports on the spending on the cash rebate and the Mediteranee Film Festival, held earlier this year, remain unpublished to date.