31 local film projects were given an accumulated €2,883,916 in financial support through the government's Screen Support Scheme on Wednesday.

The applications granted this funding include six screenwriting projects, 12 projects in development, four short films, six feature productions, and three cultural programmes.

The selected projects vary in genre, covering fictional works, documentaries, animation, and cultural programmes for television. This funding will be supporting the creation of new scripts, research, projects being prepared for development and presentation to the industry, short films entering production, feature works, and programmes looking to promote local culture on private television stations.

Overall, the Screen Support Scheme is supporting 31 audiovisual projects at different stages, from initial concept development to production and preparation for the work to reach wider audiences.

Over 100 applications were submitted through the five separate calls that were announced and ongoing for this scheme.

The first strand looked to support screenwriting and research related to cultural and creative audiovisual productions in Malta. A total of €145,288 was distributed to six projects.

In the second strand, supporting the wider development process, a total sum of €538,628 was handed out to 12 projects.

The third strand provided support to the production of short fiction films, documentaries, and animation. Four projects were awarded a combined €140,000 here.

Six projects received a total of €2 million between them for the fourth strand, which was dedicated to supporting the production of feature-length audiovisual works. These grants ranged from €103,000 to €450,000.

The fifth and final strand was organised to support original cultural programmes for private broadcasters. This call featured particular emphasis to assist audiovisual projects requiring investment that may have limited access to private funding. Three projects received an equal sum of €20,000 each in this strand, totalling this segment to €60,000.

During Wednesday's ceremony, Arts Council Malta stated that the sixth strand of this scheme shall remain open until 18 November 2026, at noon or until the fund has been fully disbursed. This strand aims to support the promotion of fiction, documentaries, and animated productions that have been completed in the past 18 months from the application submission, or that have reached an advanced stage of development, on an international scale. This financial support may be used to cover direct distribution, working with sales agents or distributors, participation in selected festivals and markets, as well as the submission of works to recognised international festivals. Interested parties have been advised to apply at the earliest.

The Minister for Arts, Culture and National Heritage, Malcolm Paul Agius Galea, said that another electoral promise is being fulfilled through this. He added that Malta's long-term strategy - Vision 2050 - identifies long-term investment in the film industry as an important part of the country's long-term direction.

Minister Agius Galea stated that in this sector, one cannot even begin without first attaining financial backing.

He said that when he was first put in this ministerial position at the start of this legislature just a couple months ago, he thought it was strange that Malta's film industry featured well-supported foreign films on one hand and local films not being supported near as much on the other. He declared that he hopes to address this imbalance.

The Culture Minister said that this scheme is about creating a new economic niche, noting that while the niche for big films already exists locally, "we cannot underestimate the niche for smaller local productions."

Minister Agius Galea said that the government will help locals spearheading the local film industry by helping them get international exposure where merited. However, he appealed for local artists to "never forget where you came from," commenting that some artists who make it big "grow so much that they snub the country, and that bothers me."

"We will try to help. We will try to help you gain contacts, there is great potential," he said, "We can get quality people, e.g., producers, from abroad here, but we must promote our own people so that they can be internationally recognized too."

He also pledged that funds allocated to the Screen Support Scheme will continue to increase, and that the scheme will be launched every year in order to provide more peace of mind and stability for film producers.

Arts Council Malta CEO Luke Dalli stated, "If we want a strong audiovisual industry, we must invest in the entire process of its creation, from writing and research, to development, production and internationalisation. This scheme is built on the conviction that creativity is a complete process and that we must accompany our creatives at every important stage of their journey."

He also told the successful applicants present that "We are not rewarding you, we are giving you what you deserve," and that he hopes for this scheme's total budget to continue increasing, observing that while the near €3 million allocated this year is a stark improvement from the €350,000 of years' past, "this is [still] not an astronomical amount."

Dalli said that Malta "is no longer the mediocre market" it was once in and that it now competes in a competitive international market he compared to a shark tank. He noted that given this competitiveness, and other markets' superior financial backing, "we must pride ourselves in the quality of our work."

He advocated for local producers to use these funds to pool together resources and gain collaborators from across the European continent. He concluded that the importance Arts Council Malta will be giving local film producers "will be unprecedented."