Dear Minister Tonio Fenech,

We would like to inform you that on 7 November 2010, we the undersigned met at the Radisson Hotel in St Julian’s for the purpose of setting up a lobby group on behalf of the film servicing industry.

Following many years working in this industry, we have come to the conclusion that Malta’s film servicing industry has matured enough to warrant such a lobby group as ours that could serve as a think-tank for the government as well as a consultant for its policies on the film servicing industry.

When handling foreign film productions on a day-to-day basis, we are constantly in touch with the issues that involve government departments and government policies and we are naturally very informed on both the good and bad impressions made on foreign filmmakers who choose to spend their money in our economy.

Therefore, with the sole aim of trying to assist government in streamlining relevant procedures to ensure constituent policies are consistent with the overall policy of attracting film productions to Malta, the group will meet to discuss all the issues that we and foreign producers are collectively experiencing.

A report will then be issued, at least once annually, detailing all matters that have been discussed and agreed unanimously.

The integrity and credibility of the report shall be maintained by ensuring that members (and therefore contributors) shall meet the following criteria:

1) He/she must officially be credited as a production manager or producer on at least three international feature-length films for TV or cinema (distributed abroad) for 80 per cent or more of their entire shooting schedule; OR

2) He/she is a member of an internationally recognized guild such as the Director’s Guild of America, UK Production Guild or similar; AND

3) He/she has at least 12 years of “active” professional involvement in the film industry or represents a service company that has a minimum of 12 years “active” experience with foreign film productions in Malta.

We have also decided to co-opt fully fledged production coordinators based in Malta and who we feel can offer a substantial additional contribution to our discussions in the light of their specific role in dealing with government during production.

In the same way that the government and MFC are willing to serve us and this industry, rest assured that we are eager to serve the government through our collective ideas and opinions.

Current members of our group

Rebecca Anastasi,

Winston Azzopardi,

Cornelia

Azzopardi-Schellmann,

Sammi Davis

Rita Galea,

Oliver Mallia,

Katryna Samut Tagliaferro,

Simon Sansone,

Malcolm Scerri Ferrante