Malta Film Studios gets approval for country's first soundstage

Malta's planning authority has approved plans for the construction of Malta's long-awaited first soundstage.

It will be built on an area of 4,000 sq. m at the Malta Film Studios, adjacent to the deep water tank facility, with its own 2,000 sq. m interior water tank overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.

This is a crucial step in the development of Malta's film infrastructure, insisted minister for tourism, Clayton Bartolo, in a statement.

He hopes the new soundstage will attract even more international productions to Malta, which has recently hosted a number of big projects, including Universal's Jurassic World: Dominion, and Apple's new Napoleon biopic, directed by Ridley Scott, and TV series Foundation. 

Malta film commissioner, Johann Grech, noted the project's decades-long gestation period and welcomed the news: “For [almost 60 years], we’ve been hearing that soundstages were going to be built in Malta. Today, we are writing our history.

The new facility forms part of a €35m 'masterplan' investment in the regeneration of the Malta Film Studios.

The country recently also introduced an increased cash rebate of 40% for international film productions that includes a new above-the-line cap at either €1m or 30% of total Malta eligible spend.