The Malta Council for Culture and the Arts (MCCA) is to award the Premju Drama – Kunsill Malti ghall-Kultura u l-Arti (Drama Award – Malta Council for Culture and the Arts) to Maltese playwrights, on an annual basis.

The award will be given to a play which has been performed in Malta during the preceding year and has been submitted for the MCCA’s consideration for the Drama Award.

In addition, the best selected play will also have to meet the criteria identified by the Council in the award regulations that

will be published in the near future.

This award is substituting the previous Drama Award called Premju Francis Ebejer. The MCCA acknowledged that the Premju Francis Ebejer award for Maltese playwrights has been instrumental in encouraging the writing of plays in the Maltese language.

The council also noted that the previous award could now be replaced with a more dynamic scheme that reflects the demands and aspirations of current Maltese generations.

The Premju Drama – Kunsill Malti ghall-Kultura u l-Arti is being established to further encourage the production of high quality playwriting in the Maltese Islands.

The council will give preference to plays written in the Maltese language. However, in the absence of these submissions, or in the event that no Maltese play meets the required standards and criteria, plays written by Maltese citizens in a foreign language, and performed in the Maltese Islands, will be considered.