Films pump Lm8m into economy in a year

An estimated Lm8 million were injected into the economy by the film industry over the past 12 months, Investments Minister Austin Gatt said yesterday.

With 12 productions filmed locally - including Steven Spielberg's Munich and the controversial The Da Vinci Code - the past year registered the greatest number of shooting days yet, totalling 164.

Moreover, Malta showed it can handle more than one production at a time, something that had posed problems in the past.

But despite the good results, which put Malta on the agenda of those shooting in the area, the island was still not a stable filming destination, the minister said.

As part of its attempts to attract more production companies, the Malta Film Commission is distributing some 1,000 copies of its newly published production guide, targeting film studios around the globe.

Production Guide Malta 2006-2007, the third guide published by the commission, includes information about Malta amid colourful photos of scenery and stills from locally shot movies.

The 76-page guide includes a list of services and personnel that might be useful to production companies and details of the incentives offered by the government.

Dr Gatt said the subsidies launched a year ago had left an effect. In the past 12 months the government paid out Lm700,000 to companies that qualified under the schemes. But, although the government had also announced "strong tax credits" for those who invest in the country's infrastructure, the minister said he did not know of anybody who took them up.

Malta Film Commission chairman Chris Grech said the commission was in the process of adjudicating tenders for a gap analysis of the local filming industry. He described this as "crucial" since Malta was operating within very harsh global competition.

"We need to understand where the global film industry is heading," he said, adding that important decisions need to be based on realistic measurements that were ahead of the game.

The report should be finished by September and the commission will be using it to make suggestions for a marketing plan for 2007 and 2008.

The commission has attempted to measure Malta's performance through interviews and surveys with the assistant producer of each production filmed here. Mr Grech said Malta's strengths include hotel accommodation, transport and ample locations while the main shortcoming was the unavailability of equipment.

He explained that this was a fast business, where deadlines are usually extremely short.

While he could not disclose any names, film commissioner Oliver Mallia told The Times that the commission was in touch with a number of producers who had queried about filming in Malta over the next year. Although there was still no confirmation of which productions would be filmed here, he said the likelihood was that things would get "really busy" from September.