The third day of the Malta Film Week, included three panel discussions at the Egmont Hall, Fort St Angelo, Vittoriosa, Malta. Panel discussions were mainly attributed with training, education and entrepreneurship.

The Panel Discussions featured several participants, including Malta Film Commissioner Johann Grech, Malta Film Commission Chairperson Beverly Cutajar Malta Enterprise Chief Executive Officer Kurt Farrugia, Malta Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive Officer Marthese Portelli, amongst others.

During these Panel Discussions, different educational pathways were discussed. Through support and collaboration with the Ministry for Tourism and the Malta Film Commission, the University of Malta and MCAST are offering a range of courses that prepare students for the Film Industry. Such courses range from Diploma level to Masters’ level.

Malta Film Commissioner Johann Grech said that Education and entrepreneurship incentives are important elements so that the country can offer what the Film Industry requires, both internationally and locally. “As a country, we need to remain more competitive. We need to keep investing in our structure, so that we make sure that our industry remains a sustainable film industry. As Film Commission, we remain focused to create a World Class Film Industry in Malta.

Malta Enterprise CEO Kurt Farrugia, said that the Government of Malta, through Malta Enterprise, already offers support for new enterprises and projects being held in Malta. “Being such a small country, we have all the requisites to closely work and support each other”. Malta is investing in the film industry and it is offering different funds. As a country, we need to promote further such opportunities for producers and investors.

Malta Chamber of Commerce CEO Marthese Portelli said that arthese Portelli said that the knowhow, the context, and entrepreneurs mindset are three crucial ingredients in the creative industry. “As a country, we have a lot of talents and we need to think not only locally but globally and The Malta Chamber helps the industry with these objectives.”

Nobel Prize laureate Olga Tokarczuk, laureate of the Golden Bear Adina Pintilie, award-winning theater director Monika Strzepka, winner of the Gdynia’s Golden Lions Agnieszka Smoczynska and program director of the Sundance festival Kim Yutani – these are just a few outstanding figures from a wide group of artists who used to be members of the jury of the New Horizons International Competition. The call for submissions for this year’s edition of the Competition lasts until March 20. The jury will also be excellent this year, more details soon.

Submit your film

What is the New Horizons International Competition?

The NHIC is the core of the New Horizons International Film Festival; it’s a platform where artistic cinema that extends the boundaries set by conventional filmmakers is presented. The competition is meant for films that constantly push the boundaries of “new horizons.” We look for unique and original narratives, documentaries, essays, and animations that experiment with how the film should look like and communicate with its audience, either following or opposing the traditional concepts. We await creations that demand a vastly different perspective – that provoke to think and feel. Recent winners are Theo and metamorphosis by Damien Odoul, The Metamorphosis of Birds by Catarina Vasconcelos, Bait by Mark Jenkin, Holiday by Isabella Eklöf or Western by Valeska Grisebach.

The Competition includes productions that are longer than 60 minutes and have been produced after 1st of January 2021 (that have never been publicly screened in Poland). The festival organizers prefer world, international, and European premieres. The winner of the New Horizons International Competition will be awarded the Grand Prix and a prize of 15,000 EUR. The Festival audience will be offering their award, too. Submissions are now open at nowehoryzonty.pl and will be accepted until 20th of March 2022.

The 22nd New Horizons International Film Festival will be held on July 21-31 in Wroclaw, Poland.

The special hybrid edition of WEMW is about to kick off and, starting today, 900 film professionals from over 60 different countries will have exclusive access to a wide range of activities, from the traditional real-time presentations of selected projects and work-in-progress, inspirational lectures and case studies, to the more unusual Green Lottery, the Creative Europe Desks Quiz Show and a Musical Plant Installation!

But let’s have a closer look at the 2022 programme: 

1. All pitching sessions & showcases & award ceremony

Participants will enjoy the presentation of 12 fiction films (Jan 24) and 10 feature documentaries (Jan 25) during the Co-Production Forum Pitching sessions. During the MIDPOINT Shorts Showcase (Jan 24), professionals interested in short films will be able to discover 4 short international film projects selected and developed by the program MIDPOINT Shorts 2021-2022. 

Three showcases will be dedicated to works in progress: Last Stop Trieste (Jan 24) will show 6 documentary projects in a final editing stage; First Cut+ (Jan 25) will present 8 international work-in-progress feature films previously selected in a new programme including tailor-made modules for enhancing their promotion & audience engagement strategies; This is It (Jan 26) will show 9 work-in-progress feature fiction films and hybrid works with a strong visual and artistic approach with Italian majority or minority co-producers. 

2. Panels and collaboration

Thanks to the close collaboration with several major content partners, WEMW has put together a series of sessions tackling different challenging topics. EAVE will lead the session “Future thinking of data analysis in the audiovisual industry”, where different speakers will look at audiovisual data and potential technological tools to better understand them from different perspectives: streamers, indie European industry, the audience potential of our scripts. For the third year the MIDPOINT Institute, key partner of the Cold Open Drama Series Lab, will organize the lecture “Financing Opportunities for Series”. ESoDoc, co-organizer of the first edition of the Inspirational Lab ‘Impact Pyramid’, will curate the keynote “What happens when Impact & Production dance together?”. ACE Producers will “come back to Trieste” to host the “ACE Interview with Ankica Jurić Tilić”, co-founder of the production company Kinorama. Thanks to the new partnership with MEDICI – The Film Funding Journey (organized by FOCAL), WEMW will dedicate the panels IN THE SPOTLIGHT: UK, Ireland & Russia Funding Landscape and Canada Funding Landscape to the 2022 countries in focus. For the very first time genre cinema will break into When East Meets West and the Fantastic Film Forum of the Trieste Science+Fiction Festival will curate the session “Crossing Genre Cinema. New Trends in Contemporary Genre Cinema”. Last but not least, EWA Network and CIRCLE Doc Accelerator will join forces in discussing how to create a fairer, more equitable and inclusive audiovisual industry in the closing panel “Embracing a New Future and Inclusive Future”. This year, in collaboration with the Documentary Association of Europe, WEMW launched the series Tiny Desk Conversations, informal chats to introduce a variety of topics and a few special guests from the 2022 countries in focus. 

3. Round tables with decision makers & producers from the 2022 spotlight territories

The 2022 edition will also feature a rich programme entirely dedicated to producers attending the market. Producers interested in deepening their knowledge on editorial line of doc & fiction sales, commissioning editors as well as training initiatives will have at their disposal 7 hours between Jan 24 and 25, and 32 decision makers in the section WHO IS WHO | Meet the Decision Makers. While as part of the 2022 East & West countries in focus, participants will have the chance to attend special lectures and round-tables dedicated to this year’s spotlight countries: Russia, UK, Ireland, Canada and USA. A wide range of topics will be addressed by local key players and producers.  

4. Out of the box

To counterbalance these industry activities, WEMW has teamed up with several friends from the industry and, after the success of the 2021 edition, is about to launch a completely renewed out of the box programme where registered producers will be able to do magic tricks together with festivals, markets and sales representatives during The Magic Co-Production, learn more about their hopes and dreams in The Magic Wishlist, and take part in this year’s Quiz Show dedicated to the Creative Europe Desks’ secrets. Widely successful in 2021, we are glad to bring back the Fortune Teller Corner where film issues are solved with the help of a tarot deck. 

This year, even more than for the last ‘out of the box’ edition, contents and formats have gone hand in hand with a very simple underlying idea: new generation, same heart!

Register now at live.wemw.it! 

Kids Kino Docs is a new development programme addressed to filmmakers from Poland and Norway who would like to make documentary films and series for young audiences. Application deadline is 7.02.2022.

Kids Kino Docs is much more than a script development programme, participants under guidance of leading tutors will not only focus on developing the story but will work on different aspects of production.

During the 15 months long programme, our tutors, Kirsten Bonnén Rask and Paweł Ziemilski, and international guest experts, will also help the filmmakers in a process of collecting documentation, preparing for filming, filming itself, and, finally, editing.

As a result, the participants should finish the programme with a well-developed story and part of the shooting material ready, with an editing process started.

Additionally, participants will have a chance to get partial support for the project’s development including documentation, editing, or shooting.

APPLY HERE: https://kidskinoindustry.pl/kids-kino-docs/

The second day of the Malta Film Week, themed ‘It’s About the Economy, Creating Careers’, started with a panel discussion with Maltese Government executives and professionals where the best strategies to push the local audiovisual industry were discussed. The main objective is to strengthen the domestic tv and film industry by education, training and funding to expand internationally after.

Amongst those participating in these sessions, there were Minister for National Heritage, Arts and Local Government Jose Herrera, Permanent Secretary for the Ministry for Tourism and Consumer Protection Ronald Mizzi, Film Commissioner Johann Grech, amongst other professionals.

Minister for National Heritage, Arts and Local Government Jose Herrera said that Malta offers a unique and particular environment for the Film Industry at large. He said that Malta has attracted film producers for decades, since it offers a unique and particular environment, including unique heritage, traditions, and buildings.

Permanent Secretary for the Ministry for Tourism and Consumer Protection Ronald Mizzi said that the Malta is not only home to great people and talent but also home to great infrastructure with training institutions and education. 

Film Commissioner Johann Grech, highlighted that the Malta Film Commission is committed to keep creating opportunities for the generations to come. He stressed that the Malta Film Commission is committed to support further local co-productions and also to increase funding opportunities for Maltese producers working on foreign productions.

During the panels that followed, a discussion was held related to the current financial incentives and schemes relating to the Film Industry. During the panel discussion, it was mentioned that the Government of Malta has recently updated its cash rebate to 40% of eligible expenditure. Feature film, Television film or Television Series or Mini-Series, Animation, Creative documentary, Transmedia and Cross-media productions are all eligible for the incentives, provided that they are all or partially produced in Malta. Local Film Incentives, such as incentives from Screen Malta were also discussed in detail during the panel discussion.Day 2 was concluded with a Masterclass session entitled, “The Art and Business of Film Production, where veteran Hollywood producer Craig Baumgarten offered his insight into the complex world of producing film content for the international market.a style="background-color: initial; font-style: italic;" onclick="window.open('/a href="/><br /></a></p>"

This Monday, on the first event of the Malta Film Film week, a Vision for the Film Industry, entitled ‘2030 Vision – A Stage for Everyone’s stories’ was launched.

During his speech, Film Commissioner Johann Grech said that the Malta Film Week is a first for the Film Industry in Malta.

“The Malta Film Week and the Malta Film Awards generated quite a debate nationwide. I don’t remember this kind of debate and engagement before in the film industry, the Film Commissioner said.

The Film Commissioner described the Malta Film Industry as an industry which keeps moving forward, even during hard times. He labelled the Maltese Film Industry as one which is growing everyday, creating more jobs, and having an ever-growing number of stakeholders.

The Film Commissioner highlighted the vision of the Government of Malta and the Film Commission for the years to come.

“Our vision is about people who want to work in the film industry. Our action plan is about creating those opportunities.

Its about securing people’s jobs, creating careers. Building better a sustainable film industry.”

The Vision 2030 will result in a number of economic benefits resulting in increased capacity, creative and technical talent development, the creation of more jobs and more economic benefits for Malta, higher employment income for Maltese workers, better working conditions in a more structured and established industry, and higher gross value added for the Maltese economy.

This is the real value we want. A strong, resilient film industry, where it becomes the stage of opportunity, for the generations to come.

Malta is renowned as an ideal film making destination within the global film sector, with versatile locations, the world renowned water tanks, excellent crews, a professional and highly respected workforce, and a strong cash-rebate programme for international productions.

Film Commissioner Johann Grech highlighted that although there are encouraging results, there is certainly much more to do for Malta to remain amongst the top countries in Europe for film making. In the coming years, incentives for local producers will be strengthened, as they will get to benefit from the cash rebate programme when producing for the local market.

“We will be helping the local indigenous sector, improving the production value of their works, ensuring that the local workforce from producers, directors, writers, technical crew, and front of camera are paid fairly for their work.”

He mentioned that local producers have the potential to co-produce with our European counterparts and beyond and thus, the co-production fund shall not be limited only to co-producing in Malta but also to local co-producers producing abroad. These incentives, will provide Maltese producers the opportunity to access even larger pools of production financing.

Amongst other things, the Film Commissioner mentioned that the Malta Film Commission will be working with all stakeholders, and the Film Week is an opportunity to star having serious conversations about different aspects of the Malta Film Industry, including training facilities and incentives, further promotion about Malta as a destination and its locations and further programmes to promote the local industry.

The Film Commissioner pledged that the Malta Film Commission will keep committed to create opportunities for all, create further career opportunities, and work towards having a better and more sustainable film industry.

Visegrad Film Forum has announced the names of the first two guests. Renowned filmmakers Jim Stark and Eddy Joseph who have collaborated with world-class directors on dozens of notorious films such as Batman, Pink Floyd: The Wall, Casino Royale or Coffee and Cigarettes will visit Bratislava to share their expertise in informal lectures. After a two-year break, the Visegrad Film Forum will take place as an on-site event on 15-19 March 2022 at the Film and Television Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava and at the Lumière Cinema in Bratislava.

„Creating a space for aspiring filmmakers and film enthusiasts to peek behind the „film curtain“ – behind the scenes of how a film is made – has always been our goal. The pandemic situation has prevented us from realizing this as a live event in recent years, but we believe that despite the recurring adversity we will prepare the next edition during March 2022 at the best possible quality level and in a safe form for every guest and participant“ says event director Jakub Viktorín.

The producer`s role in independent filmmaking

Producer Jim Stark has helped many iconic independent directors and their films come to light. Early in his career, he worked with director Jim Jarmusch on Down by Law (1986), Mystery Train (1989), Night on Earth (1991), and produced two vignettes from Coffee and Cigarettes (1986). He also collaborated on La Gomera (2019), which was nominated for the Palme d’Or at Cannes, and Foxtrot (2019), which won the Silver Lion at Venice.

The unique atmosphere of the film, enhanced by the sound

Sound engineer Eddy Joseph is the recipient of a BAFTA for sound in the film directed by Alan Parker, Pink Floyd: The Wall (1982), and several nominations for Flight 93 (2006), Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (2001) and Quantum of Solace (2008). He has more than 70 feature films to his credit, including iconic films such as Batman (1989), Casino Royale (2006) and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) among others.

What is the Visegrad Film Forum?

The Visegrad Film Forum is a networking and educational event bringing together film students and professionals from the film industry on an international level. It constitutes a platform for discussion about what goes behind the making of a film and also about current trends in cinema. Over five days, it will offer a rich audiovisual programme of lectures and screenings accompanied by debates with renowned filmmakers.

International participation of partner schools

The Visegrad Film Forum will once again present student projects from partner film schools. The meetings that will follow the screenings will provide a space for students to discuss not only the films, but also the filmmaking conditions and the system of teaching at the selected schools. In addition to the co-organiser, the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava, the V4 partner schools will include the Film Academy of Miroslav Ondříček in Písek (FAMO), the Eszterházy Károly University in Eger and the Krzysztof Kieślowski Film School at the University of Silesia in Katowice. Four more partner schools will soon be announced by the organisers.

The Visegrad Film Forum (VFF) will be held in parallel with the FEBIOFEST Bratislava International Film Festival, which will take place from 16-22 March 2022. Accreditations purchased at the VFF will also be valid for events organised within the framework of Febiofest. VFF accreditations can be purchased in advance for a discounted price.

Current pandemic measures

The Visegrad Film Forum will take place as an on-site event in compliance with current pandemic measures, which will be closely monitored by the organisers, and all participants will be informed of their development.

The New Horizons Association (the organiser of the Kids Kino IFF, the Kids Kino Industry co-production forum, and the Kids Kino Lab script development workshops) and the South Norwegian Film Centre (Sornorsk filmsenter) present a new programme: Kids Kino Docs. The first call for projects began on 3rd of January and will run until 7th of February, 2022.

The Kids Kino Docs programme is addressed to filmmakers from Poland and Norway who would like to make documentary films and series for young audiences.

Two calls for projects for the new programme will be organised in 2022. Each of them will result in 6 projects selected to take part in 4 workshop sessions in Poland and Norway and will be developed during the 15 months long programme. Additional plans include shooting sessions, film documentations, and online consultations supervised by the leading tutors, Kirsten Bonnén Rask and Paweł Ziemilski, and international guest experts. 

The programme will provide filmmakers with an opportunity to develop their projects in an international community of documentary film professionals. As part of the process, participants will work on a variety of aspects: improving their ideas, collecting documentation, preparing for filming, filming itself, and, finally, editing.

First call for projects: 3rd January – 7th February 2022.
Read more about the programme: https://kidskinoindustry.pl/kids-kino-docs/

Our Tutors:
Kirsten Bonnén Rask has 40+ years of experience as a script consultant, in parallel to being a decision maker, teacher and project developer. Her services span all production types and formats, with multiple best script/film awards. Kirsten has also worked with Lars von Trier, Lone Scherfig and Bille August just to mention some. During the 40+ years she has read and advised on many hundred stories – shorts, series, features, documentaries. Kirsten is also a tutor at Kids Kino Lab programme.
Paweł Ziemilski, graduate of Film Directing at Lodz Film School, DOK PRO at Wajda School and Sociology at Warsaw University. Paweł is a film director, producer and co-owner of MX35 studio. His films ("In Touch", "Urban Cowboys", "Rogalik") received wide publicity at numerous film festivals around the world and won prestigious prizes (IDFA, Thessaloniki IFF, ZagrebDox, Oberhausen ISFF). Paweł is also a lecturer at The Polish National Film School in Łódź where he runs an experimental documentary lab.

Kids Kino Docs is an extension of the Kids Kino Lab script development workshops, where documentary productions were developed alongside feature and film and series projects. The goal of the new programme is to create a space dedicated to documentary films and series for young audiences.

Kids Kino Docs together with KidsKino Industry and Kids Kino Lab are the industry events accompanying Kids Kino IFF. Every year, selected film and series projects for young audiences take part in the Kids Kino Lab script development workshop, to be later presented alongside other projects at the Kids Kino Industry co-production forum. The forum is aimed at creating a space to connect filmmakers and their potential business partners to co-work on a project.

The New Horizons Association is a non-governmental organisation whose main objective is to promote and popularise unconventional ambitious arthouse cinematography through organisation of film festivals (New Horizons IFF, American Film Festival, Kids Kino IFF) and educational programmes (The New Horizons of Film Education) as well as running a cinema in Wrocław (Kino Nowe Horyzonty) and film distribution.

The Kids Kino Docs programme is co-financed by the EEA Financial Mechanism and the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.

After the last successful ‘out of the box’ edition, the new generation of WEMW will mix the warm, professional and playful atmosphere of all the previous on-site and online editions. WEMW 2022 will be a hybrid space designed to bridge the distance between real experience and virtual reality, a universe where hybrid connections will mingle with virtual meetings and real emotions.

Get your ONLINE ACCREDITATION and have direct access to an outstanding selection of projects and to a rich series of lectures and panels. Once again our brand-new digital platform will grant easy access to more than 500 decision makers and producers from all over the world and for the first time we will provide a hybrid match-making service to facilitate connections amongst all attendees.

The WEMW Digital Universe will create a unique experience for all our online participants and will offer a wide range of business, networking and entertaining opportunities such as:

• attending the full WEMW industry programme, including the EAVE, MIDPOINT Institute, ACE Producers lectures and the panels dedicated to our 2022 East & West focus
• taking part in a full afternoon dedicated to genre production run in collaboration with the Fantastic Film Forum
• joining our pitching sessions & request one to one meetings with the Co-Production Forum and Shorts selected projects
• subscribing to the blind dates with our decision makers and to the boosted ‘out of the box’ casual programme
• meeting sales, commissioning editors and festivals in informal and cosy sessions
• having instant video chats and interact directly with other attendees whenever, wherever
• watching a special selection of the Trieste Film Festival screenings;
• testing your luck with the WEMW lottery and subscribing to the WEMW Quiz Show!

ACCREDITATION FEES & DEADLINES
As for the second consecutive year there will be no possibility to get an accreditation to physically attend our market, we have opted to have one special fee for everyone for the whole duration of the accreditation campaign: 45 EUR.

You will be able to get your accreditation from Wednesday Jan 5 until Tuesday Jan 25 (or until sold out). Please note that due to the limited number of online accreditations, they will be assigned on a first come, first served basis.

In order to request your accreditation you need to create your personal account following this link. Once you access your account you simply have to fill in the online form with your personal company info to be published in our industry guide and pay by credit card at the moment of your request.  You will be notified by e-mail about whether your accreditation has been granted or declined. Accreditation is personal and non-transferable.

Starting from next week you will be able to find a weekly updated list of confirmed attendees on www.wemw.it

If you have any questions, please send an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
More information are available at www.wemw.it 
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WEMW is organized once again by the FVG Audiovisual Fund in collaboration with the Trieste Film Festival, EAVE, Creative Europe Desk Italy and thanks to the precious and constant support of Creative Europe/MEDIA Programme, MIC -Direzione Generale per il Cinema, CEI – Central European Initiative, Film Center Serbia and the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia.