Love Films but hate Hollywood? Due to public request, the Eden Cinemas are introducing a new twist to cinema in Malta, that of alternative movies. Through significant investment and support via the Cinema Digitisation Scheme, the Eden Cinemas recently converted its 13 cinema screens to Digital projection. This technological improvement made large swathes of quality films suddenly available to local cinemas.

Eden Leisure Director of Operations, Simon De Cesare, stated “Our aim is to offer the public a wider variety of great films that are less mainstream and less Hollywood but that are high quality, cultural cinema.”  Thousands of films are released every year and cinemas in Malta see less than 1% of its films coming from outside the US and UK. Through the support of local distributors, Eden Cinemas occasionally screens non-mainstream films, however this is infrequent.  “By creating this alternative film brand we aim to tap into European and other less known products and dedicate a screen solely to these films. It is yet unclear how popular this initiative will be however these types of films have been requested time and time again from the public so we are now trying to create a more continuous product and develop an audience.”

Mr De Cesare explained that it is a complicated and uphill battle to secure content for local cinemas because of our population size and the potential return to film owners however the Eden Cinemas have secured some excellent content and aim to vary the product to satisfy all needs and nationalities. He added “We will need to offer an interactive product where people who love these films can request or suggest what films they’d like us to exhibit and, based on the demand, we can try and source. We have set up a Facebook page and we encourage people who love film but prefer non-Hollywood to join, to keep up to date on the product on offer and to be able to communicate with our programmers to request films they want to see.”

The Eden Cinemas’ Side Street films started last week with The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Italian Oscar Winner, La Grande Bellezza and will continue with the following line up, up to and until August.

Calvary

The Double

 Nymphomaniac Vol I

 Belle

 Locke

 Nymphomaniac Vol II

The Past

 Lunch box

More product is being sourced at the moment and the line up above may change however be sure to sign up to Facebook page and follow us on the Eden Cinemas web site for updates.