The films are shooting across the archipelago, including Malta’s sister island of Gozo. Two productions are serviced by Halo Pictures: the six-part British television series The Reluctant Madame Blanc, created by and starring Sally Lindsay, and directed by Dermot Boyd, and The Holiday by Laura Way. Tetrad Productions Ltd is servicing Hallmark’s Checking in For Murder, written by Rick Garman and directed by Jeff Beesley.

This comes off the back of a busy first quarter, which saw Latina Pictures provide production services for the series Foundation, with episodes directed by Roxann Dawson, Jennifer Phang and Rupert Sanders; as well as season three of Das Boot, with episodes directed by Matthias Glasner and Rick Ostermann.

Moreover, in an interview for the local broadcaster, Malta Film Commissioner Johann Grech said that even with mitigation measures in place 2020 also proved to be a busy year, with 11 film productions filming in Malta over the twelve months.

These included the Hollywood blockbuster Jurassic World: Dominion directed by Colin Trevorrow, produced by Frank Marshall and Patrick Crowley, with production services from Latina Productions; British production Jetski directed by James Nunn, produced by Andrew Prendergast and serviced by Small Island Films; as well as the action-adventure show Love on the Rock (Romancing the Cure) directed by Mark Shapira, produced by Pure Flix, RevengeMovies LLC and serviced in Malta by Pellikola.

Malta offers a 40 per cent cash rebate on eligible expenses, which the Film Commissioner credited for the upswing in business in spite of the Coronavirus crisis.

A thousand crew members were registered with the Malta Film Commission, up from 300 in 2018, there are also 360 companies registered, up from 60 over 2018, according to Johann Grech. He also affirmed the Maltese government’s intent on building a sound stage to be able to further expand the island’s production capabilities.