Boosting Malta’s film and TV sector – Martin Bonnici

The Maltese film and television sector has rarely, if ever, seen as much discussion as we have had in the past months. Everyone from the Malta Film Commission (MFC), to the Malta Entertainment Industry and Arts Association (MEIA), the Malta Producers’ Association (MPA), the General Workers’ Union (GWU) and individual film-makers have been talking about the strengths and weaknesses of this sector. However, although I have been producing Maltese content for around 12 years, and this sector has been my livelihood for a long time, I have found myself unable to recognise the industry today. No, sadly we do not have a 100-year history of the film and TV industry. An industry is an economic activity that generates capital and, from the data available, no Maltese film-maker has generated much economic activity, let alone capital, from Maltese films and TV before the past couple of decades. But producers are not going bankrupt and the sector has seen a serious boom in the past decade with some truly impressive growth. Especially when one remembers that we are working within a marketplace dominated by multinational companies with annual budgets in billions. So how would I describe the...