Private film facilities to be encouraged

New regulations under the Business Promotion Act aimed at encouraging the private sector to invest in the building of sound stages, post-production facilities and other services required by the film industry are due to be published within weeks, the Film Commission said.

It maintains that film facilities should be privately owned assets, employing locals with training and international exposure to the industry.

The commission has been working on a new set of fiscal and financial incentives to encourage producers and Maltese investors to use Malta as a base for film productions.

The incentives were announced by the government in the last budget and the intention was to introduce them within the course of the year.

The Producer's Creative Partnership (PCP), a Maltese production company, has however expressed concern about the incentives and is awaiting a clarification on what was announced in Parliament.

It is also concerned about the amount and frequency of films being attracted to Malta, saying the boom of recent years seems to have disappeared.

The film industry is a century old and Malta has only started to look at it with some seriousness over the last six years, Film Commissioner Oliver Mallia pointed out. "For Malta to become a genuine and stable film destination, incentives are but a first step," he said.

"We should focus on our strengths and strive to promote them with the aid of incentives. And we should not forget that even our strengths are not exclusive to us."

Mr Mallia was replying to questions on the potential effects of a new film studio being opened in neighbouring Morocco and which the PCP described as a "wake-up call" that the government should heed before it was too late.

Such foreign investments in countries like Morocco and Spain, which is planning the construction of a special effects water tank, only fan the fire, the PCP said.

CLA Studios in Ouarzazate are being built by veteran Italian producer Dino de Laurentiis and Rome's Cinecittà Studios, which have teamed up with Moroccan entrepreneurs. They are expected to further boost the economy there, the mainstays of which are tourism, film production and agriculture.

Ouarzazate is already a popular film location and has hosted a wealth of Hollywood productions in the past - from Ridley Scott's Gladiator and Kingdom of Heaven to Oliver Stone's Alexander.

But now, movie-makers have the added bonus of not having to transport tons of equipment and hundreds of technicians.

An $8.3 million project, which stretches over 371 acres, with two shooting stages of 19,380 square feet each, the site should be able to accommodate two major movies a year.

However, Mr Mallia said: "It would be premature to conclude that this latest development would have a direct effect on our film servicing industry, especially since the surrounding vast desert locations found in Ouarzazate differ completely from Malta's landscapes".