Incentives for film production companies

As from next year, the government will be offering, on a case-by-case basis, incentives to film production companies shooting in Malta, the parliamentary secretary in the Ministry of Economic Services George Hyzler said.

He was speaking at the opening of the MEDEA Script Development seminar held in Malta by the Mediterranean and European Audiovisual Development Programme (MEDEA) and the Malta Film Commission in collaboration with the European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs.

A total of 25 MEDEA beneficiaries, one of whom is Maltese, and another 15 local observers attended the seminar. The Maltese project benefiting from MEDEA funds is titled Inside out Malta and is being produced by Marie Briguglio, from Where's Everybody?.

Dr Hyzler said a major Hollywood production and a number of other projects had already confirmed their presence in Malta next year.

Referring to the training of local audiovisual professionals, Dr Hyzler said Malta had no specific policy for training in film and television.

"The recent agreement, between the Malta Film Commission and the Employment and Training Corporation, leading to the first series of short training courses in different technical fields of the audiovisual sector is already a milestone. In fact, to increase our labour force in this sector, especially in the higher ranks of a production, during the first week of December we will be training about 40 local professionals and promising workers in the film and television industry," he said.