From June 14th to 23rd, the Valletta Film Festival takes over the historic squares and monuments of Europe’s smallest capital to celebrate cinema.
Organized by the Film Grain Foundation, this festival is Malta’s most important film event, each year attracting nearly 10,000 spectators by offering screenings, workshops and master classes.
For the first time the festival is dedicating its official competition to films from smaller countries – the “Cinema of Small Nations Competition” – aimed at productions from 34 countries across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, such as Albania, Lebanon, Croatia, Macedonia, Kosovo. 12 drama and documentary films are competing in the feature film section, with 24 films in the short film section.
In addition to the competitive sections, the Valletta Film Festival has 4 other categories: “Islanders” shows films from or about islands, while “Without Borders” focuses on films from a specific region.
The “Masters of cinema” section shows retrospectives so festival-goers can rediscover the films of well-known directors. Lastly there is “Teens only”, a selection of films about the transition to adulthood.
Sources: https://www.vallettafilmfestival.com/, https://www.eturbonews.com, https://www.timesofmalta.com
