Film industry in the spotlight
The film industry has been in the news for the wrong reasons in the past few weeks. A story in the Sunday Times reported that Malta will be giving back nearly €47 million in tax rebates for the shooting of the sequel to the blockbuster Gladiator. This is happening through a scheme that is intended to attract more productions to Malta, with up to 40% allotted. This has broken the record.
Top industry insiders contended that almost half of the production’s budget is not directly spent in Malta. It was argued that Malta will be lucky to get back €10 million, while handing over the €47 million in tax rebates. It must be remembered that when the original Gladiator was filmed in Malta – at the time there was no tax rebate scheme – it left €21 million in the Maltese economy.
An exercise carried out by The Malta Independent on Sunday listed a long list of projects that could be carried out with €47 million. Just to give a few examples, the Sir Anthony Mamo Oncology Centre cost €32.9 million, the Central Link project cost €31 million and three new schools together cost just over €50 million. Apart from this, there are three ministries, separately, have a smaller budget than the tax rebate allocated for the film.
It is no wonder that the scheme that we have in Malta to support the film industry is described as being the most generous.
The government, and the Malta Film Commission, are weathering the storm saying that without such a scheme Malta would not be in a position to attract so many productions. This may be so, but at the same time it would not be a bad idea if the scheme is revised, downwards. Is Malta truly getting its value for money with such a scheme? Are we really sure that if, say, productions tell us they will be spending €100 million in Malta, this €100 million is really being spent here?
The head of the Malta Film Commission, Johann Grech, is accusing all those who are questioning Malta’s scheme as trying to harm the film industry. In a five-minute rant on his Facebook page a few days after the story broke, he spoke like a true politician trying to justify how the system operates and how the industry is flourishing. He was not too convincing.
Too many questions are being left unanswered. The people have a right to know much more about what is happening. After all, it is their money. So far, the government and the Malta Film Commission have not been forthcoming with their answers.
What must also be pointed out is that Maltese film producers are getting a very small fraction of funds available. They should be getting more financial assistance in their endeavours.