Mediterrane Film Festival Cost Around €5 Million, Film Commissioner Confirms
This year’s Mediterrane Film Festival cost taxpayers around €5 million, according to Film Commissioner Johann Grech.
The nine-day event, which concluded last week, brought in international stars including Russell Crowe. Many of the guests and their partners travelled business class and stayed in five-star resorts, paid for by the Commission.
The festival ended with a lavish awards night on Manoel Island attended by around 1,000 guests and featuring performances by acts such as Emeli Sandé, who was flown in for the event. A packed programme of screenings, masterclasses and panel discussions was held between 21 and 29 June, with extensive promotional campaigns on street billboards across the island.
In comments to the Times of Malta, Grech said the festival had cost roughly as much as last year. That figure was originally said to be €3.9 million but was later revealed to be closer to €5 million.
Since it launched in 2022, the Mediterrane Film Festival has faced repeated criticism over its cost and lack of transparency. Grech has previously defended the spending as “essential” to compete with other countries offering similar incentives to attract international productions.
While there is value in organising such events many in the industry have said that it is strange for a festival that is in its third year to still be paying so many people and their partners to attend.
This year’s edition also saw the return of British comedian and author David Walliams for a third consecutive year. Walliams had presented the festival’s first awards ceremony in 2022, for which he was paid €120,000. In 2023, he featured in a 10-minute promotional film about Malta understood to have cost over €1 million. His continued involvement this year has again raised questions—both about how much he is being paid and about the promotional value of his appearances.
During the PAC sitting, Grech claimed this year’s edition generated an estimated €9.7 million in economic impact and $21.9 million in media exposure. However, a Times of Malta fact-check clarified that a separate report published on the festival showed only €1.4 million in direct economic impact, rising to €2.5 million when accounting for indirect effects.
The Film Commission has stated that under its current leadership, Malta has hosted 169 productions with over €635 million in production budgets spent locally.
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