Malta, the EU and Micro Budget Filmmaking

According to new research by the European Audiovisual Observatory (EAO), the median average budget of a European film production is around €2 million. It's safe to say that this is quite a small budget compared to that of European Films' movie-sibling across the Atlantic, where the average Hollywood production costs closer to the €65 million mark on average.

Despite this, there is another class of film budget - one even smaller than small: the microbudget film.

Microbudget Films are films produced from tiny budgets spanning from a few hundred-thousand down to single-digit thousands. As an example of this type of film, one can look at Robert Rodriguez's El Mariachi (1992), a Mexican film which was shot for a measly €7,000.

Having a budget under €1.5 million, means your work as a filmmaker could be considered a 'Difficult Audiovisual Work', according to the Malta Film Commission. Unfortunately for Malta's local film industry, most of the productions on our shores are relegated to this category.

European film nowadays lacks private investment and relies heavily on governmental aids such as film funds to propel it to fruition. As such, the size and availability of a national film fund is highly conducive to not only a films success, but its making to begin with.

This week, we covered a relaunch of the national film fund called Screen Malta, which allocates a maximum of €200,000. This firmly cements any production reliant upon it within the aforementioned sub-€1.5 million 'Difficult Audiovisual Work' category, outlined by the Maltese government itself.

Compared to most other European national film funds, Malta's offering is severely lacking. The research mentioned earlier also shows that it is only with the larger markets that public funding starts to matter less, which means that before Malta's film market is grown through public funds, it can't escape it's dependency on them, which further highlights the need for robust financial aid.

With all this in mind, one hopes Malta's governing body recognizes the need to aid our country's fledgling industry, especially following the international re-emergence from the pandemic recession (hopefully), which would allow our nation to have the thriving film industry it deserves.

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