In the past decade, Malta’s film industry has been transformed into a year-round production hub, whose contribution to the national economy has been valued at more than $1.7bn (€1.5bn). It now hosts overlapping film and TV shoots and has unveiled plans for the world’s first ‘land‑sea super-soundstage’.
Major filmmakers, studios and streamers have long been drawn to Malta. Ridley Scott returned to the islands to shoot Napoleon and then Gladiator II in the same locations where he made the original a quarter of a century earlier, while Universal Pictures has twice brought the Jurassic World franchise to Malta: Dominion and Rebirth. In 2025, Netflix filmed Enola Holmes 3, starring Millie Bobby Brown and Louis Partridge, on the island.
“We changed the trajectory from a seasonal servicing proposition into an industry that operates throughout the year, with a significantly larger and more consistent Maltese workforce,” says Film Commissioner Johann Grech, who has led Malta Film Commission since 2018.
The evidence is now independently documented in a study, written by the chief officer for economics at the Central Bank of Malta. It uses an input-output model built on official National Statistics Office data to quantify what has happened since the commission changed course in 2018. Its headline finding is that since the launch of the cash rebate scheme, the industry has generated more than $1.7bn (€1.5bn) in gross value added for the Maltese economy, with the overwhelming bulk of it, more than $1.4bn (€1.2bn), created after 2018, against $412m (€356m) in the preceding 13 years.
The study also found film activity supported an average of around 500 full-time equivalent jobs a year between 2005 and 2017. Since 2018 that figure has risen five-fold to around 2,500 a year, peaking at 6,500 in 2023, and across the 2018‑25 period the industry sustained around 20,000 jobs in total, spread across hospitality, retail, transport, construction and the creative trades.
Within that wider footprint, the core Maltese crew base has grown from around 300 to more than 1,800 professionals, the majority now working on a continuous basis.
“Productions need the best talent, and the best talent requires guarantees,” says Grech. “What we’ve done brings predictability of work and skills pathways, so young people and career-changers can see the industry as stable rather than seasonal, as it was in the past. It’s all about quality. Quality brings value and progress.”
Grech wants the crew numbers to keep climbing sustainably, pointing to the commission’s Opportunity For All online platform, which he says is delivering. “The priority is not growth for its own sake, but growth that is underpinned by skills development, experience and high professional standards, ensuring that Maltese crew remain competitive, in demand, and able to build long-term careers in the industry.”
Perhaps the most significant finding in the report is about the cash rebate. Malta moved its incentive to 40% in 2018, and the study has found that tax revenues generated by film activity have consistently exceeded the cost of the rebates. The study calculated net fiscal benefit to the Malta government, after paying out every rebate, amounted to $109m (€94m) between 2018 and 2025, against $40.5m (€35m) across the whole 2005-17 period, a four-fold increase in annual terms, from around $3.5m (€3m) to $14m (€12m) a year.
“The film industry is a net fiscal contributor, not a cost, and this return on investment forms a core pillar of why we continue to grow,” says Grech. That proven performance, he adds, is also why private investment continues to flow into Malta in the hundreds of millions of Euros, drawn by long-term consistency, stable policy, competitive fiscal incentives and the strength and reliability of the local workforce.
The report also maps how deeply film money now travels through the wider economy. The strongest impacts are recorded in accommodation and food services, wholesale and retail trade, and transportation and storage, which together with the arts and entertainment sector account for around two-thirds of all economic activity generated by filmmaking in Malta.
Centre stage
The land‑sea super-soundstage, the centrepiece of the wider masterplan for Malta Film Studios in Kalkara, is a purpose-built stage designed to deliver land and sea environments together, at scale and under controlled conditions, on the same stretch of coastline where the historic water tanks have doubled for every ocean on earth. Years-long technical work has been concluded and the project is about to be launched by an international call.
For Grech, the concept is less a leap of faith than the distillation of everything the island already does well. “Malta has unique characteristics. We don’t have the land mass of other countries. We needed to find a unique selling proposition that provided value and that can amplify our strengths, rather than try to replicate the volume of other countries.
“Some of our competitive advantages were always the combination of locations, water work, coastline and weather. Our vision is to enhance our competitive advantages by building a world-class, purpose-built facility that can deliver land and sea environments together, at scale, with highly advanced controlled conditions.”
It is a stage concept designed around Malta’s ability to deliver adjacent land builds and marine work with proven local expertise, packaged in a way that is attractive to large-scale productions and franchise films with complex environmental needs. It is, says Grech, a deliberate shift “towards infrastructure-led competitiveness, rather than just fiscal competitiveness”.
The super-soundstage is an integral part of a long-term investment programme aimed at regenerating and expanding Malta Film Studios’ capabilities. The commission is at an advanced stage in assessing delivery and financing models, and the build is being approached in phases, allowing additional capacity to come on-stream progressively rather than waiting for a single completion date. On the technical side, the design is being shaped with input from leading international specialists with extensive experience of large-scale studio builds and film productions.
Where the industry’s contribution to gross value added averaged 0.28% of the economy between 2005 and 2017, swinging erratically between boom and bust years, it has averaged 0.83% since 2018, climbing year after year to a peak of 2.16% in 2023, the year Gladiator II shot on the island, when nearly a fifth of all economic growth in Malta was generated by the film industry. Rather than falling away after that exceptional period, the report finds the impact stabilising at just over 1% of GDP in 2024 and 2025, evidence, in its words, that the industry’s influence is becoming structurally embedded rather than cyclical.
Competitive rebate
Malta’s 40% rebate remains one of the most competitive in Europe. “We were among the first, and our model is being replicated throughout Europe and elsewhere,” says Grech. “It is normal that jurisdictions respond to what producers value, which mainly is clarity, reliability and effective execution. Our job is to continue strengthening our value proposition so we remain at the top of the competitiveness table and a real player on the world stage.”
He says the framework is kept under continuous review to ensure it remains competitive, effective and aligned with international best practice, but stability matters too because producers value predictability.
A key part of the growth strategy is Mediterrane Film Festival, an annual June appointment that has grown consistently in profile and industry engagement. It operates as a business platform, bringing producers, studio executives, financiers and creative leaders to the island so they can experience what it offers, combining screenings and industry events with direct exposure to locations, crews and infrastructure.
“Malta may be small, but it looks for value in everything it does, and the recipe is working,” says Grech.
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