When filmmaker Andrew Bonello moved back to Malta five years ago he was surprised with the number of people who were delving into short-film production. But he soon noticed that they did not have a space where they could show their work to a live audience.

So Bonello created Malta Indie Shorts, in collaboration with the Spazju Kreattiv Cinema at St James Cavalier in Valletta. Once a month, locally produced short movies are shown to a live audience at the cinema.

This provides budding filmmakers with the opportunity to gauge reactions to their work, engage with their audience and get to know other filmmakers for future collaborations.

“This is my way of contributing to an ecosystem where more and better films are made locally,” says Bonello, who is a film writer, actor and comedian.

It’s so powerful as a medium to tell people, in an immersive way, a story that really touches them

Bonello was born in Malta, raised in England and spent eight years living in California where he worked in the film industry as an engineer, writing animation and film restoration software, among other things.

Still from Chelsea Muscat's I Lost Myself When I Found You.

“Film has always been my great passion. Film is a unique medium – it combines so many elements: music, dialogue, story­telling, colour palate, production. It’s an amalgamation of several of the main art forms we have in our society. That’s why I feel it’s so powerful as a medium to tell people, in an immersive way, a story that really touches them emotionally,” he says.

When he returned to Malta, Bonello got involved in the local movie scene. That was when he realised that, while Malta was attracting big productions, there was also home-grown talent to be nurtured.

“I was surprised at how many independent filmmakers there are in Malta making their own productions. I’ve met dozens of them. I guess technology has democratised filmmaking.

“It struck me that while there are film festivals here in Malta, they tend to focus – like most film festivals around the world – on internationally produced content. There didn’t seem to be initiatives where locally made films are shown on a big screen to a live audience in a forum that can encourage discussion and feedback. Malta Indie Shorts is a friendly and professional forum for budding filmmakers,” he says.

A panel is responsible for selecting the films that make it to the cinema. What are the criteria? “We’re very open in terms of what can be submitted, with a focus on the basics of good filming – stories. If a short film tells an interesting tale and reaches out to the audience, we are interested.”

Malta Indie Shorts happens once a month at 7pm at the Spazju Kreattiv Cinema in Valletta. Forthcoming dates are March 4, April 1, May 13 and June 3. For more information about what movies will be screened www.kreattivita.org.