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 A detailed history about Malta's Film Commission (MFC) and financial incentives

​Updated December 2018


The Maltese islands have been a popular destination for foreign film shoots from as far back as 1925 with "Sons of the Sea" and then 1930 when the British film "Tell England" (also known as The Battle of Gallipoli) came to its shores.  More notably, in 1952, the island featured for the first time as itself in the war film A Malta Story.  

But it was only after 1964, still in the absence of an indigenous film industry, when an organised film servicing industry started to take shape on Malta, albeit in an ad hoc manner. The servicing activity developed organically after the founding of the Malta Film Facilities (MFF), later renamed Mediterranean Film Studios, which consisted of a large water tank built with a natural horizon. This tank quickly made Malta a unique destination for water-based movies.  MFF was the brainwave of Benjamin "Jim" Hole and more information about this facility can be found here.  He was helped by Maltese construction manager and eventual studio manager Paul Avellino.

Mediterranean Film Studios - which actually has no sound stages (aka "studios") to this very day - became state-owned and it dominated the film servicing industry for over 30 years.  Back then producers filming in Malta would habitually either set up their own bank accounts and operations in Malta or,  more often than not,  do it all through this film water facility.  Those running the facility were political appointees, being a government-owned enterprise, and it is no secret that the facility went through a rollercoaster ride of both good and bad years of management. 

It was mainly in 1994 when the Maltese government had begun to take a hard look at the film industry in an effort to privatise the facility company. This was in line with its new national policy, a requirement for membership in the EU.  Until then the facility had acted both as a water tank provider with set construction as well as an ad hoc service provider.  In the absence of a proper film commission office, the facility also adopted a similar commission-like role unofficially.  It was the de facto film liaison office for the government, alongside the Department of Information (DOI).

Later in 1997  the island's first production manager Malcolm Scerri-Ferrante lobbied with the government for the urgent need of a film commission, submitting an official proposal to the Prime Minister of the time.  Initially no positive feedback was received but when Gladiator's line producer Branko Lustig told the Tourism & Film minister,  Karmenu Vella, that Malta needs a film commission, the government decided to listen more carefully.  At this time, in early 1998,  Lustig had met the management of Mediterranean Film Studios in preparation for his DreamWorks film.  Lustig back then did not feel the water tank facility company would be his ideal service provider. He had disliked the facility's assumed role as a de facto film liaison office for obtaining permits whilst compelling him to utilise the facility as a service company.  Furthermore he did not require the water tanks.

So Minister Vella started looking into the setting up of a film commission but his efforts came to a standstill when the government faced an early election.  When a new government was formed in 1998,  Scerri-Ferrante sent his proposal to the new Prime Minister who then passed it onto his Parliamentary Secretary,  Dr. Austin Gatt.  

Dr Gatt was previously the Secretary General of the Nationalist Party which ran and still runs its own TV station. Gatt had by then developed a relationship with Winston Azzopardi, a local businessman owning a catering company and also running a cafeteria at the Cirkewwa ferry terminal.  Azzopardi had been helping the Nationalist Party to obtain foreign programmes such as the hit series Friends by attending each year the MIPCOM market in Cannes. He had a flair for filmmaking and had attended a film course in New York.   Gatt therefore wrote a memo to the Prime Minister in 1999 recommending Azzopardi as the country's first film commissioner.

The Prime Minister accepted this proposal and the new parliamentary secretary for the economy, Dr George Hyzler (Jnr), who had the film industry placed in his portfolio of duties, took on the responsibility to set up the new film commission.   Hyzler and Azzopardi felt the best way to announce Malta's first new commissioner was at the world-famous water tanks run by Mediterranean Film Studios (MFS) since in those days this company was the one and only recognised film entity in the eyes of the Maltese public. Therefore the Ministry, through Hyzler's communication officer Oliver Mallia,  asked MFS's newly appointed production manager Malcolm Scerri-Ferrante whether a press conference could be held on the studio premises in order "to promote the importance of the film industry".  To MFS' surprise, the press conference held on its own premises announced the set up of the film commission and appointment of the commissioner.  Despite the surprise of the agenda of the press conference, the MFS management was pleased that government finally made a step towards acknowledging the importance of the film servicing industry. It spent the next six months assisting the fledging commission with publicity material and gave assistance with the commission's  first participation in a Location Expo in Los Angeles. Although the intention was initially to share a booth, both entities ended up manning their own booths on the day.

In the following years Hyzler adopted a very hands-on approach towards the film service industry, often intervening personally when red tape for productions  became a little too much. It is fair to say that the driving force behind the commission back then were Luisa Bonello (the commission's coordinator, hand-picked by Azzopardi) and Oliver Mallia (officially Hyzler's communication officer).
​
Three years later, in 2002, in order to facilitate the financing structure for Warner Brother's next movie, the country's first film commissioner Azzopardi offered to be a 'co-producer' of "Troy" so that the producers can benefit from the Sale & Leaseback incentive offered in the UK which required the film to be made under the European Convention of Co-Productions if filming was required to take place in Malta. In view of this fact,  a month or two later parliamentary secretary Hyzler felt that it was unethical to have  Malta's film commissioner also co-produce a film and receive a generous salary in addition to his public work.  Hyzler therefore decided to have the final word on this matter and replaced the commissioner.

Despite this star-studded feature becoming a box-office failure, the film Troy had a significant impact on the local economy.  (After the filming Azzopardi went on to become a production service provider and eventually, some fifteen years later,  he directed  a short and feature film, both respectable films which garnered positive reviews and both starring his son actor Joe Azzopardi.  His feature The Boat is to this day the first Maltese feature to have been sold so widely abroad so quickly)  The void left by Azzopardi as film commissioner was filled by Oliver Mallia who had already spent three years actively involved with the film commission's coordination and who held the film industry close to his heart.

After nearly five years of hard efforts by the Malta Film Commission to introduce solid and attractive financial incentives, no legislation was introduced since its inception in 1999.  This despite even hard lobbying from the two main private stakeholders of the time,  Mediterranean Film Studios and The Producer's Creative Partnership.  Many blame this on the finance minister John Dalli who would not even concede to  complimentary police assistance, even though he promised to consider this in 2004 after meeting  producer Mark Huffam and PM Malcolm Scerri-Ferrante, both representing a large US studio film.  However, it is worth noting that Minister Dalli is credited for  previously granting an ad hoc incentive to Warner Brothers for Troy, which was based on 10% of employee's wages. Dalli had himself flown over to Los Angeles with his wife to meet the studio bosses.  Sadly,  when the time arrived for the Government to pay out, there was a substantial delay, despite Warner Brothers' lawyers arriving in Malta to try to meet Dalli who was then unavailable due to house visits - it was election time. It was only after the intervention of the new Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi that Warner Brothers received their dues. (It is pertinent to note that whilst this unfortunate incident in Malta's history cannot be re-written, today's financial incentives are written in Malta's legislation and approved by the EU. The process is a fairly smooth one with no delays or failings whatsoever since they were officially introduced in 2005).

By 2004 the new Prime Minister Dr. Lawrence Gonzi had assumed the responsibilities of finance ministry and there was hope that the film incentives "might" finally be introduced in the country's new budget.  Back then Malta's film servicing industry was already beginning to lose out to the competition abroad.  The situation was so desperate that Malcolm Scerri-Ferrante  wrote a letter in the local newspaper shortly before the new budget announcement in parliament. The letter appealed to the Prime Minister to finally introduce incentives.  He wrote "considering the current international film climate, Malta’s film servicing industry stands to become even more unpredictable and volatile if serious incentives are not introduced this time around."  Obviously the film commission was also appealing internally to the Prime Minister.

When the country's new budget was announced a couple weeks later, it was unfortunately a very botched up attempt. Even reputable auditing firms described it as very confusing.  Their best interpretation resulted in very ineffective and miserly incentives, prompting  Scerri-Ferrante to write directly to Prime Minister Gonzi. The letter explained that the new incentives would have no serious impact on the industry and the country would be better off employing its incentive-allocated cash towards a tiny national film fund rather than giving "peanuts" to foreign producers who will not be swayed to Malta by such a small rebate.  In line with the film commission's recommendations, Scerri-Ferrante recommended a minimum rebate of 20% with an added incentive for films showing Malta as Malta.

Fortunately the government listened this time and also took heed of the advice pouring in from its own film commission.  Five months later, in Spring 2005,  the new Minister for the film industry, Dr. Austin Gatt, participated on a radio talk show hosted by Joe Grima and involving Scerri-Ferrante telephonically since he had by then relocated abroad, having given up on any progress in Malta's film industry.  Live on air Gatt promised Scerri-Ferrante that the new incentives will be implemented "almost word by word as per your letter to the Prime Minister".

Although this sounded too good to be true, Minister Gatt kept his word and became the first minister to finally introduce solid incentives for the film industry.  Before the end of 2005, with the hard work of the Malta Film Commission,  he introduced an official cash rebate of up to 22% of local expenditure.  Finally Malta could compete properly on the world stage after several years of lobbying in vain.

The Malta Film Commission studied incentives abroad and structured the Malta incentive in a fairly seamless and professional manner. Also, it was and still is notably a cash rebate not a tax credit.  The only 'fault' in its set up is that its administration was placed under the Malta Film Commission rather than a separate entity, placing one individual (the commissioner) in a position of too much power which in turn only increases the risk of abuse as in any other similar situation in Malta or abroad.  Fortunately there have been no official reports of significant abuse so far.

Whilst Minister Gatt became credited for the island's first film financial incentives, reinforcing his reputation as that one politician who actually gets things done, he was unfortunately also responsible for the destruction of the film studio's valuable production offices/workshop building, which was owned by government and leased to the studio.  Due to several arrears in rent, Dr Gatt allowed the eviction of the building and endorsed its demolition in order to make way for his pet project, the development of a 'Smart City' with Middle-Eastern investors. To this day the Smart City project did not reach anywhere close to its goals of becoming an IT hub generating hundreds of new vacancies.  It remains essentially a real estate project and the land where the production building was demolished remains undeveloped.  The Minister was also responsible for the surprise slapping of a court case against the studio, forcing its eventual eviction due to other land lease arrears.  The pending outcome of the court case, which spanned over nearly a decade, led to the freezing of all investment in the studio by its owner and his potential investing partners. 

Commissioner Oliver Mallia was widely known for his intense interest in bringing films to Malta and getting very involved in solving all sorts of problems encountered by producers, but sadly In 2007 Mallia resigned abruptly from his public role as film commissioner in order to steer a large Spanish production "Agora". He had set up a new service company Cinebiss, then in partnership with the current country's chief of staff.   Minister Gatt had felt that any delay in his resignation could result in a scandal due to the obvious conflict of interest.  With a budget of 50m Euros, "Agora" was to become Spain's most expensive production at the time, with an international cast and intended for worldwide distribution.   Despite the film not being an international commercial success, it created almost an entire year of jobs for local crew members, especially construction workers.  

As it happened, the year 2007 was to be the beginning of a huge wave of films being attracted to Malta, in part due to the new financial incentives.

The void left by Oliver's hard work and abrupt departure as commissioner was filled by Luisa Bonello who until then had served as the commission's coordinator since its inception and who was already very much the backbone of the commission. She was known to work hard and was instrumental in encouraging the first season of HBO's Games of Throne, which turned out to be a very high profile series. The film commission ran with two full time employees - including the commissioner - and managed all marketing for the film servicing  industry, including the attendance of several foreign markets and events. The commission back then also administered the financial incentives as it still does today.  

In February 2011, whilst the film commission was under the responsibility of Finance Minister Tonio Fenech, Bonello resigned as commissioner at her own free will, publicly claiming she "wished to move on".  This was considered to be a blow to the film servicing industry as her performance had produced several positive results. Her position was eventually filled by then commission board member Peter Busuttil, known for organising various entertainment events and for his flair for theatre. He was also a long-time friend and person-of-trust of Minister Fenech.  

​Following Busuttil's appointment,  leading film service providers found themselves setting up an informal association to assist the government with its policy making but their time was quickly absorbed with reporting to government numerous incidents regarding the conduct of Busuttil as the new film commissioner.  Despite various testimonials and high level meetings which included  Prime Minister Dr Lawrence Gonzi and Finance Minister Tonio Fenech, and despite promises to "fix" the issues, no changes were made.  In fact, notwithstanding the written testimonials, including one received  by the minister directly from a respectable British film tutor who had dealings with the commissioner following a workshop organised by the commission itself, Minister Fenech chose to take no action whatsoever and wrote to Malcolm Scerri-Ferrante and the association in March 2012 that unless he has "proof of financial irregularity" he sees no reason to replace the commissioner for other alleged failures in its core duties.  The only positive change that the government implemented at the time was the employment of another person at the commission, Susan Ronald, known for her organisational skills - a key factor found to be severely lacking with the incumbent commissioner. 

During Busuttil's tenure the commission received substantial funds from the EU for training purposes, but these funds were directed mostly towards creative workshops like scriptwriters. Little or no attention was given to training in non-creative roles in order to nudge a growth in the film servicing industry. Consequently, Malta was not preparing its workforce for the increase in the number of foreign films shooting in Malta.  This turned out to be a crucial mistake since 2005 for the cash rebate was not enough and government needed a multi-pronged approach in order to nurture and develop this industry.. The result today is that Malta can service only one big production at any one time, or otherwise two small to medium-sized productions. And some heads of departments, special technicians and production personnel still need to be brought in.  A third production shooting in Malta will typically need to bring in a very high contingent of foreign crew.  In all fairness, considering Malta has a population of under 450,000  it has been argued that the restricted abundance of first class crew is not too unreasonable compared to other countries.


In 2013 the majority of Maltese voters were clearly tired of the government that was being administered by the same party for almost 16 years. There were claims of arrogance and over-confidence.  The majority of film service providers were up in arms against the conduct of the film commission and the ignorance played by government towards their problems.  The electorate voted for a new government and six months later Engelbert Grech was appointed as the new film commissioner.  By then Grech had established himself in the local audiovisual scene as a respectable cameraman/editor/producer and was also known for a war documentary which he produced himself single-handedly and successfully managed to sell overseas.   During Grech's years as film commissioner - where he successfully managed to right the wrongs of the previous commission - his office became the "caretaker" of the water tanks, until then run by a private company Mediterranean Film Studios (MFS), after a court case in August 2014 ordered the government's land lease to be terminated. This happened following a long dispute over payment plans with the owner who inherited the same problematic issues from the previous owner.  A public tender issued in 2015 in an attempt to privatise the water tanks was unsuccessful, even though Pinewood Studios was one of the bidders.  Despite the strong interest, Government decided to retain ownership of the studios citing national interest and a lack of agreement with the final bidders.

This failed tendering process resulted in the film commission now undertaking the unorthodox and permanent role of studio manager - with government being the 100% shareholder - and this effectively gave the commission the added responsibilities of a service provider besides the heavy responsibility of promoting the country and facilitating red tape on the island for visiting productions.  The commission also administers the Malta Film Fund which aims to nurture the small but growing indigenous film industry.

In 2018 Engelbert Grech was replaced by Johann Grech, of no family relation and who stems from Gozo, the sister island of Malta.  The new commissioner arrived with a strong marketing-public relations background and worked previously in the enterprise of former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair before becoming the Maltese government's head of marketing.  Grech has so far been successful in obtaining 1.5 million Euros for an upgrade of the water facility as well as doubling the annual budget of the Malta Film Commission to some 800,000 Euros.  At the time of this update he is proposing to raise in the near future the financial incentives up to a generous 40% with a minimum base of 30%.  The new commission is adopting a more aggressive "can do" attitude and has applied a new motto: "If you can imagine it, we can make it happen".
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    • A history of world tanks and miniature filming techniques
  • Rebate
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  • NEWS
    • TLG talks to PCP founder about his 25 year career
    • Malta's first vetted Key Crew list
    • Industry fixes on the way for Malta
    • Papillon in Malta
    • Underwater in Gozo
    • The Ghosts of Porto Palo
    • Chanel returns to same tank after two decades
    • Secret Life of Dogs
    • A tepid start to 2016
    • Water tanks for sale
    • Incentives increased!
    • 2014 - A year of change?
    • Malta promises positive developments
    • Increasing incentives for Malta
    • 2012 set to be a calmer year
    • A turning point for Malta's film Industry
    • Making the challenging Volvo commercial
    • Malta - A small island with a big industry
    • Crafting an indigenous industry for Malta
  • Contact