Arts Council confirms €1 million film fund to open for applications on 29th July

Arts Council Malta has confirmed that the film and television funding scheme is due to open for applications on 29th July, as previously indicated.

A representative for the entity said that the timeline “is going to be adhered to as indicated on the website.”

The page listing the Arts Council’s funds, grants and schemes for 2024 stipulates that applications for the Screen Support Scheme will open on Monday 29th July.

The deadline for the €1 million is set for 24th September, with results to be communicated on 21st November.

More information can be found here, and meanwhile, Arts Council Malta has organised an online info session on 1st August to respond to any relevant questions.

The film fund has been the subject of considerable controversy over recent years and has found a new home at the Arts Council after being moved away from the Film Commission, which has come under strong criticism by industry players for its focus on attracting foreign productions at considerable expense.

Gladiator II, for example, was given a tax rebate amounting to around €47 million – a sum many times larger than all state support for the local sector over the last years.

The Arts Council embarked on a research and consultation phase earlier in 2024 regarding the new-look film fund. It sought to “identify how the funding programme can support and facilitate the advancement of the sectors concerning the existing economic, legal and social contexts that impact and are impacted by these sectors.”

The research evaluated the impact of the various editions of the programme by reviewing fund management and selection processes and eliciting in depth knowledge and expertise of beneficiaries, stakeholders and policy makers in the design of a new funding programme that builds on the challenges and opportunities that have emerged from previous mechanisms, as per the Arts Council’s website.

Speaking to BusinessNow.mt, a spokesperson for Arts Council Malta said that “the consultation process was very useful, with various recommendations taken up, that obviously would benefit the sector but also in balance with Arts Council Malta funding mechanisms and in line with state aid monitoring board.”

A Maltese film industry stakeholder who was granted anonymity to speak freely said that the Arts Council has “a better reputation, with the film sector’s grassroots, than the Film Commission.”

They said that Arts Council Malta is, so far, “acting in good faith” – implying that the same could not always be said about the Film Commission.

Nonetheless, the film stakeholder made it clear that the Film Commission had also listened when local producers pushed back against clauses they deemed unfair, including one that stipulated that a beneficiary would need to return the grant if their production turns a profit – “we pushed back on that condition, which was included in previous funds, and the Film Commission removed it in last year’s scheme.”

That last film fund – managed by the Film Commission and dubbed Creative Malta – was opened for applications in January 2023, but the framework used to process applications was criticised.

“It was a rolling call, so filmmakers could apply at any point. That meant a couple of things. First, with projects applying and needing to be evaluated all the time, it ran up huge expenses in administration. And second, by August it was all gone.”

The stretch of over 12 months between the exhaustion of the previous Film Commission fund and the issuing of results of the new Arts Council Malta has piled further pressure on an industry with precious little certainty.