Film Grain Foundation is pleased to announce the creation of VALLETTA FILM LAB, a training and development platform open to filmmakers from Malta and other European small nation states.
The platform, the first of its kind in Malta, is being set up with the financial support of Arts Council Malta through the Creative Industries Platform. The project was one of five selected for funding following a public call in 2017.
Starting in 2019, the lab will be organising two workshops per year open to documentary and fiction films and various networking and promotional events held throughout the year and during Valletta Film Festival. The first international workshop for feature-length documentary films will be held in Valletta between 18-23 March 2019.
Commenting about this initiative, Oliver Mallia, one of the founders of Film Gain Foundation, said that Valletta Film Lab will provide the beneficiaries of various film development and production funds in Malta and other small European countries the possibility to attend first-class workshops that would help them transform their ideas into high-quality projects.
“The idea to create a training and development platform open to filmmakers from small nations stemmed from the Cinema of Small Nations conference held at Valletta Film Festival in 2016. We understood the need for platform that focuses on small nations given that film production companies from small countries experience similar difficulties because of limited economies of scale.”
Mr Mallia continued that the activities to be organised by the Lab are intended to help producers from small nations to develop productions that would reach international financiers, producers, distributors and broadcasters and potentially help them reach audiences beyond their own territories.
Film Grain Foundation co-founder Slavko Vukanovic added that ten local companies and individuals all active in film production have already partnered the platform and committed to participate in the development workshops that the Lab will be organising. Mr Vukanovic remarked that one of the aims of Valletta Film Lab is to ensure that by 2021 a minimum of 18 feature-length projects from Malta would have received support by the lab and reached advanced development or pre-production stage.
Production companies and individuals from Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Iceland, Ireland, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, Georgia, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro, Moldova, Norway, Northern Ireland, San Marino, Slovakia , Slovenia, Scotland and Wales can apply to participate in the Valletta Film Lab workshops and events.
The guidelines and application for the first workshop to be held in March 2019 will be made available online at www.vallettafilmfestival.com on Wednesday 7th November 2018.
