Latest news with #MaltaFilmStudios
Yahoo
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Why Everyone Is Talking About Malta Right Now
If you follow actors (Josh Gad, Millie Bobby Brown, Anna Camp, Gregg Sulkin, Chris Perfetti or Barbie Ferreira), filmmakers (Jon Watts, Jake Schreier, Catherine Hardwicke or Andrew Ahn), production executives (from Amazon, A24, Universal/Focus Features, HBO/Max, Searchlight or Arclight Films) or journalists (from THR, Variety or Ankler) on Instagram, chances are you've seen images of Malta in recent days. That's the goal of Johann Grech, who serves as Malta Film commissioner and CEO of Malta Film Studios. The man is at the center of the Mediterrane Film Festival, which ran on the island nation from June 21-29. And while it served as a showcase of international cinema, it's just as much a promotional tool to attract projects to Malta, which this year is celebrating a 100th anniversary of hosting international productions and toasting a rich 40 percent tax rebate incentive to keep cameras rolling in 2025 and beyond. More from The Hollywood Reporter Netflix Takes Victory Lap Through Seoul With Massive 'Squid Game' Parade Canada Scraps Digital Services Tax After Trump Trade Talks Threat BBC "Regrets" Not Pulling Bob Vylan Glastonbury Set Livestream With "Antisemitic Sentiments" It seems to be working. While the festival rolled out in the capital city of Valletta, there have been seven projects shooting in Malta, including another Enola Holmes, a second season of Paris Has Fallen, Luke Eve's Easy and Hulu's reality dating series Overboard for Love produced by Call Her Daddy guru Alex Cooper, to name just a few. In a few days, Universal will release the anticipated Jurassic World Rebirth starring Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Bailey and Mahershala Ali, a film that used Malta as a backdrop for certain action sequences, the latest in a long line of blockbusters shot here including Ridley Scott's Gladiator franchise and Napoleon. During a break from a busy fest schedule, Grech sat down with THR inside the Malta Film Studios offices to talk about his nearly eight-year tenure steering the ship here, how the festival fits in with his master plan and finalizing some long-overdue blueprints to build a soundstage next to the studio's water tanks. We're speaking at the halfway point of the film festival. How are you feeling? Excited. Fired up. Every year, the festival is growing as an organization in terms of attracting an interested audience, in terms of popularity and positioning. This year, its third year, is going to be the best edition. The Mediterrane Film Festival was the brain child of mine and I'm so excited to really keep growing it for the future, and I'm satisfied that the brand is being further developed and it keeps growing. It's attracting audiences to Malta because at the end of the day, the festival is a strategic business tool for Malta to increase Malta as a filming destination. It helps attract more projects to Malta which will result in more jobs for Maltese crew. So in terms of the objectives, we are reaching those. What other objectives are you looking to accomplish? Our marketing aspects have different components, which are reaching audiences made up of producers, independent filmmakers, studio executives, financiers, decision-makers and others in helping bring them to Malta. We can, of course, reach out to them by going to Hollywood or places like the U.K. or other locations in Europe, but the other way is to invite audiences here. That way they can see our product up close and personally, they can visit the locations and dream about their projects that can be executed here. We are known for our cash rebate, which we increased to 40 percent and it helped strengthen our position. We are also known for our water tanks and every time we get filmmakers here, they can actually see what we offer; it's not just talk. What you see is what you get here. The Mediterrane Film Festival is a tool for reaching them. We are using this platform not to just discuss the art of film but to express a vision for further collaboration because film is a collaboration between different nations, different cultures. But we are also screening movies and encouraging the public to participate in those screenings, and as a result showing what are and culture provides to the world. There are more Hollywood physical production executives on the ground this year than in any other edition of the festival. What are the conversations like with them? This week, we are meeting executives for one-on-one meetings. It's business-to-business to understand what their needs and experiences are, and we're learning more about what types of projects they have so we can pitch to the studios, or we can show them what the potential is here. We can show them what Malta and the water can offer to their scripts. We've organized amazing location tours — of the sea and of the studios — so they can see for themselves. Malta can easily double for different countries, different cities. The missing part is that we don't have soundstages. So, we are using this festival to reach out to potential investors because we now have a blueprint to finish. In Malta, there has been talk of a soundstage for at least 61 years, but it's never been as close in terms of getting done as it is today. As you mentioned, the soundstage has been a subject of conversation for decades, and there's been some criticism over why it's taken so long. Why? There were no blueprints. But now we have blueprints and it's going to be world-class with a vision for the next 400 years. You might tell me that it's ambitious. Yes, I'm ambitious. I'm ambitious for our vision, our goals and our objectives. Our model is ready to be built. We're using the Mediterrane Film Festival to attract investors to talk about our project so that it's not just the government but also the private sector who will work to make it happen. At one point, it was to be three soundstages? Yes. When I became commissioner over seven years ago, I said that we were going to push for a master plan. And we did. We got our plans approved by the authorities. Part of that master plan was for the film studios to have a world-class soundstage because in order for us to compete, we have to have our own product that is world-class. Part of what makes us leaders is the incentives but it has to be the other services we offer and that infrastructure. So, the master plan includes not just a soundstage but also workshops, production offices, warehouses and other facilities required by productions. The soundstage will be located in a specific area of the studios, near the deep water tank. That's why I say that what we're building is setting the stage for the next 100 years so that future generations will benefit hugely from the infrastructure that we're creating. Since you came aboard in 2018, what would you say is your proudest accomplishment? Seven years of turning the industry from a seasonal one to working all year round. It has become an economic powerhouse to our nation. In 2023, it was the best year ever in the story of filmmaking. We delivered 18 percent of our economic growth in the last five years and we sustained 15,000 jobs. In the last five years, the industry has generated over a billion euros in our economy. Today, we have more than 1,000 of our film workforce working all year round and more than 700 businesses. This has been an achievement. When I came here, I had people knocking on my door, telling me that they were jobless. 'What are you going to do for me?' I said, 'Give me time. We will rebuild and strengthen our product and we will get more films here.' We increased the cash rebate to 40 percent and then we issued a call for more Maltese to join the industry so that we could further upskill our crews. Under my administration, we got 169 productions. The last five years have generated a massive impact on the economy. What would you say are your biggest challenges? I know there have been some budget controversies in recent years … Our investments lead to bigger results. For example, for every euro that we invest in film, the film industry generates three back. Let me ask you a question: Would you invest $5 million to get $15 million? The answer is yes. The government is convinced of the investment because the return is so huge. For example, the government is getting more income in terms of tax contribution then it is investing. Would you invest more? Of course, the answer is yes. We are lucky that we have a government on our side. We are lucky that our government understands the film business. The figures are clear because it's logical. My cab driver said Malta is stressed because there are something like 30-45 new cars on the road each day with the influx of immigrants and new people coming to live here. Malta is a small country with a finite area of land, housing and resources. Do you worry about that? There's incredible interest in Malta but the management or the productions is key to our success. For example, we have seven productions currently. We can't have 12. We can't have three blockbusters at once. My job as the commissioner is not to lose any business but to attract business. We ensure that we don't lose business so it's all about mapping and planning. Planning is fundamental to the film commission. We work closely with studios and filmmakers to ensure that there's a good plan and a good flow. We have many partners in the business and we wrote guidelines from a business and production point of view to ensure a smooth and successful experience for everyone. I want to ask you a question regarding the centennial anniversary. I know this may be hard to pick since so many projects have filmed here over the years, but looking back over the 100 years, do you have a favorite film that shot in Malta or something that means a lot to you? I will start with Gladiator and Jurassic World. I will also mention Munich, which was not made during my administration. I wish it was but it would be on my bucket list to get [Steven Spielberg] here again. Munich showed the world that Malta is so much more. We doubled as a location for six different countries. That, as well as Gladiator, positioned us on a global map. When you pitch to filmmakers, what do you say that Malta can be subbed for? Everything is important to us. Every film has its own art. We do talk about the versatility of the locations and we can offer southern France, the Middle East and recently we even substituted for Boston. We can do so many places, and that's why the next step is the building of the soundstages so we can do many more. What is your vision for the future of the Mediterrane Film Festival? This is an important tool for Malta to reach out to the film community. It's a platform for us to share with other nations and strengthen the film industry globally. Malta was always a bridge between continents, and the festival is a bridge for the film industry. This is just the start. My vision — again you may tell me that its ambitious but we dare to win — is to lead us into the next 100 years. It's not just a legacy for us but we're building something for the next generation to ensure that Maltese will not just have jobs but they will have careers in the film industry. We're creating a foundation to ensure that we have a world-class film industry in Malta. See below for scenes from inside the Mediterrane Film Festival's sunset party at Saluting Battery on Saturday night. Best of The Hollywood Reporter The 40 Best Films About the Immigrant Experience Wes Anderson's Movies Ranked From Worst to Best 13 of Tom Cruise's Most Jaw-Dropping Stunts
Metro
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Metro
I was electrified seeing my favourite historical drama in the most epic way ever
I am not ashamed to say that I love Troy unironically – and I saw it in the best place on earth last week in a once-in-a-lifetime experience. It would certainly be classified as a 'guilty pleasure' movie by those who believe in that, and I don't remember the critics being especially kind to it upon release in 2004 – it has only 53% on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes. The Independent's critic Jonathan Romey sniped at the time: 'Wooden horse, wooden acting, wouldn't bother if I were you.' But I'm a full-throated fan girl – and yes, a critic now myself – who considers this historical epic one of my favourite films since sneaking into my local cinema underage to see it when it first came out 21 years ago. Directed by Wolfgang Petersen, who assembled a suitably heroic cast featuring the likes of Brad Pitt, Peter O'Toole, Brian Cox, Orlando Bloom, Brendan Gleeson, Eric Bana, Sean Bean, Diane Kruger and Julie Christie, Troy feels like one of the last extravagant and deliciously unsubtle 'history-adjacent' blockbusters that died out in the noughties. I also have a lot of love for James Horner's stirring score and striking production design from Nigel Phelps. Tone and mood wise, for me, it captured that Bronze Age mythological vibe and grandeur well. And I share my love of this film knowing everything wrong with it: I have a degree in classics and studied the Iliad, the epic poem by Homer from which this story is most often drawn. Characters dying at the wrong time by the wrong hand in a way that would have a huge impact on a lot of Greek mythology, for example, and crucial characters who don't even appear. People have been uncharitable about Game of Thrones scribe David Benioff's screenplay for Troy, but I actually think he did a good job of distilling it down for the casual cinemagoer and cutting out a lot of faff (nearly half a book of the Iliad is dedicated to listing all the armies that sail to Troy as part of the Achaean alliance). Yes, there's clunky dialogue, but moments like Achilles (Pitt) calling Agamemnon (Cox) 'a sack of wine' – a direct quote from the Iliad – and Sean Bean's dulcet tones as Odysseus in the opening and closing narrations, talking of the heroes' thirst for fame and glory ('kleos' in Ancient Greek, and a huge recurring theme in the Iliad) make my heart full. So when I got the chance to watch Troy among the splendour of a seventeenth-century fort in Malta – where it was largely filmed – I seized the opportunity. As part of the Mediterrane Film Festival, in its third year, the programme focused on screening movies shot in Malta as well as newer releases, to promote the country as a burgeoning film production hub and growing player in the industry internationally. In a unique set-up – certainly the only one of its kind I know of – Malta Film Studios boasts Fort Ricasoli as part of its backlot, which can – and has – stood in for anything from Ancient Rome to the Red Keep. Famously, the Colosseum for the Gladiator films was built right slap bang in the middle of the fort here, but my delayed flight meant I arrived too late to watch Gladiator II within Fort Ricasoli. For me though, Troy represented the greater tug on my film-loving heartstrings anyway; I understood the incredible opportunity to watch it right where the streets of Troy were constructed for shooting, and among left-over movie statutes strewn across the lot. There were even costumes on display thanks to the festival, which included those of Eric Bana as Hector and Peter O'Toole as Priam. Such was my dedication to seeing Troy that I even missed a press dinner: that's proper dedication from a journalist. I was nostalgic for the film and hadn't seen it in a good few years – I'm not a serial movie repeater and have a good memory, especially for formative film experiences like this one – but it turned out there was another surprise in store for me. For I realised from the opening shots that we were, in fact, watching the director's cut, something I'd never yet had the opportunity to do. At around 30 minutes longer, it was also noticeably gorier than the theatrical cut – but I was also thrilled to see just a smidgen more screen time for Bean's Odysseus, among others. The only niggle was that the music didn't quite thrill me as expected, as a fan patiently waiting for the propulsive theme as Pitt's hero and his men take the beach at Troy in one go. I later discovered my instincts and ears were correct as this longer cut dramatically changed the score of the film. But what a treat, watching acting legend O'Toole on majestic form, wringing every drop of pathos out of the script, while Brian Cox enjoys himself immensely as the scenery-chewing villain of the piece in early Logan Roy mode. I always had a soft spot for Eric Bana too, and his ability to sell the nobility and sensibleness of a strait-laced hero, while Pitt did a decent job in the tricky role of an arrogant demigod gifted with legendary prowess as a warrior and an unquenchable thirst for glory. It also helped that he sold the physicality well and was choreographed with a cool but deadly signature move. (Yes, it is a shame though that they chickened out and made Garrett Hedlund's Patroclus Achilles' 'cousin' rather than his lover – nowadays we would have hopefully got that storyline). More Trending As a viewing experience, watching Troy on massive outdoor screening, with the booming sound, spectacular surroundings and a packed audience truly cannot be rivalled. It helped even more that the temperature cooled down to perfect as night fell and the expert lighting showed off Fort Ricasoli and all her cinematic treasures to their best advantage. Honestly, it's an experience I will never forget. And if I've got you in the mood for Sir Christopher' Nolan's take on The Odyssey next summer, Troy's sort-of sequel – unsurprisingly it is my most anticipated film – I can recommend that as a much more engrossing read than the Iliad. Got a story? If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@ calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you. MORE: Orlando Bloom hints at new beginning after Katy Perry 'split' MORE: Film about 'the greatest that never was' drives to $144,000,000 at box office MORE: I partied in Europe's most LGBTQ+ friendly country — and discovered its secret
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Mediterrane Film Festival Sets Jury and Special Programming for Third Edition
The 2025 edition of the Mediterrane Film Festival is falling into focus. The third installment of the festival — scheduled to take place in Valletta, Malta from June 21-29 — has reeled in a jury that includes filmmaker Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight), Oscar winning production designer Rick Carter (Avatar), costume designer Charlese Antoinette (Air), set decorator Elli Griff (Napoleon), production designer James Price (Poor Things), Maltese director Mario Philip Azzopardi (ZOS: Zone of Separation). The jury will determine the recipients of the Golden Bee Awards, a list that will be unveiled at a gala, on June 29. More from The Hollywood Reporter Seth Green, Ashley Greene to Star in Director Peter Facinelli's Rom-Com 'Grace Period' (Exclusive) 'Dark Winds' Star Jessica Matten on That Shocking Episode 4 Ending: "This Is Above My Pay Grade" Robert Pattinson Is Done With 'Twilight' Haters: "Are You Still Stuck on That S***?" The Mediterrane Film Festival, which is under the direction of a new creative team in festival director Ray Calleja and curator Mark Adams, features three pillars of programming: main competition (films from across the Mediterranean), out of competition (global selections) and Mare Nostrum or Our Sea (films dedicated to sustainability and environmental themes). The latter's jury includes Grainne Humphreys, a longtime artistic director of the Dublin Film Festival, and Ania Trzebiatowska, a senior programmer at the Sundance Film Festival. Beyond the fest's public screenings, programming will also include panels, roundtables and masterclasses from notable industry talent. Jury member Hardwicke will be pulling double duty this year as she's already been booked for a filmmaker discussion in support of her film, Lords of Dogtown, which will have a 20th anniversary screening. Past speakers include Mike Leigh, editor Yorgos Mavropsaridis (Poor Things), Oscar-winning production designer Nathan Crowley (Wicked), casting director Margery Simkin (Top Gun) and composer Simon Franglen (Avatar: The Way of Water). This year's festival is being curated with the theme 'We Are Film,' which is meant to be a reflection of the festival's mission to unite creators and audiences in honoring the universal language of film. It also very much aligns with a major Malta milestone: 2025 marks 100 years of filmmaking in the area, dating back to its first feature film, 1925's Sons of the Sea. In the century since, it has become a hot production hub thanks to its architecture, landscapes and water-based facilities at Malta Film Studios. Movies that have shot in the area include Gladiator, Troy, Game of Thrones, Napoleon and many more. 'As we celebrate 100 years of filmmaking in Malta, we're honored to welcome an exceptional panel of judges who reflect the depth, diversity, and global reach of contemporary cinema. Together with our festival curator, Mark Adams, we're committed to shaping a program that not only honors Malta's cinematic past but also champions bold new voices from across the Mediterranean and beyond,' said Calleja in a statement. Added Malta film commissioner Johann Grech: 'The Mediterrane Film Festival was born from a simple yet powerful idea – to connect creative minds from the Mediterranean and across Europe and transform their ideas into reality. We stand for opportunity, collaboration and creativity.' Best of The Hollywood Reporter 13 of Tom Cruise's Most Jaw-Dropping Stunts Hollywood Stars Who Are One Award Away From an EGOT 'The Goonies' Cast, Then and Now
