The Film Grain Foundation has announced the launch of a film development and professional training platform, the Valletta Film Lab. The Foundation, which organises the Valletta Film Festival, wants to strengthen Malta’s film culture by organising various events which promote films made on the island and bring film-makers together.
The Valletta Film Lab will do this by offering professionals workshops to help them export their films to a wider world. The platform is open to film-makers from Malta and other small European nations. Of the 29 European countries which can participate, 8 are in the Mediterranean region: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Cyprus, Malta, Monaco, Montenegro and Slovenia.
The Valletta Film Lab will start in 2019 with two workshops a year – one for drama and one for documentaries. The first workshop, for feature-length documentaries, will take place next March in Valletta, while the second, for dramas, will be held in November 2019. In addition to these two workshops, various events will be organized throughout the year and during the Valletta Film Festival in June to promote and enrich the project.
Ten Maltese production companies and independent film-makers have already announced their participation in the workshops. Their goal is that by 2021 the Valletta Film Lab should have given support to 18 Maltese features.
Information and registration: https://www.vallettafilmfestival.com/2019-valletta-film-lab-documentary-guidelines/
sources: https://cineuropa.org/, https://www.filmneweurope.com
