Long-delayed film studios plan suddenly returns as €744 million private concession

After six years of promises, changing plans and no construction, Film Commissioner Johann Grech’s long-awaited sound stage project has suddenly re-emerged as a 65-year concession to be potentially financed and operated by the private sector.

The Malta Film Commission has issued a call for a private operator to finance, build, maintain and commercially run the Malta Film Studios complex in Kalkara, including the long-awaited sound stage.

The concession covers some 92,400 square metres of public land and facilities. It includes a deep-water tank and “super stage”, the existing shallow-water facilities and a head-office production zone.

The successful bidder, if one is found, will retain the revenue generated by the studios and pay the Film Commission an annual concession fee. That fee will be waived for the first four years, although annual ground rent of €73,402 will still be payable.

Grech’s Film Commission has placed the estimated value of the concession at €744 million. That is not the amount the government will receive, nor is it the estimated construction cost. It represents the Commission’s projection of all the revenue the private operator could generate over 65 years. It is not known how Grech arrived at this valuation.

No minimum investment figure is stated in the main tender document. Bidders must demonstrate access to a €17 million credit facility, even though Grech previously promoted the redevelopment as an €80 million project.

The move marks another major change to a project first announced by Johann Grech in 2020.

At the time, the Film Commissioner – known for his disregard for public procurement rules – said the government would build three sound stages, describing them as the “missing piece” in Malta’s film infrastructure. A planning application was approved, but nothing was built.

Five years later, in 2025, Grech presented revised plans centred on a single 4,000-square-metre “land-sea super stage”. He gave no clear explanation for abandoning the original plans, how much had already been spent on designs or whether that work could still be used.

The latest tender, issued on Monday, once again refers to multiple studio facilities but shifts the cost and commercial operation to a private concessionaire for more than six decades.

The change comes against the backdrop of Grech’s controversial record of spending millions in public funds on film festivals, awards ceremonies, celebrity appearances and overseas travel while the promised sound stages remained on paper.

The Shift revealed that the Commission spent €1.3 million on Malta Film Week in 2022. A later five-day Mediterrane Film Festival cost €4 million, according to a government-commissioned study, yet no supporting invoices were included in the report tabled in parliament.

Grech, backed by successive Labour administrations, has repeatedly resisted disclosing complete spending records, lists of guests and suppliers, and details of contracts connected to the events.

A National Audit Office investigation subsequently found that Malta Film Week was supported only by rudimentary documentation. It raised concerns about the Commission’s business model, weak audit trails and deviations from procurement rules. Direct orders were frequently used because of so-called “deadlines” the Commission had imposed on itself, while some lacked the necessary approvals.

The auditors also found that the Film Commission had no formal long-term strategy against which the value of its marketing expenditure could be assessed.

Despite those findings, Grech retains Prime Minister Robert Abela’s backing and has now been entrusted with overseeing one of Malta’s largest and longest public concessions.

Bids will be assessed mainly on technical proposals, which carry 90% of the marks. The annual fee offered to the government accounts for just 10%.

The concessionaire will have four years to complete the development before operating the studios for the remainder of the 65-year term. At the end, the facilities are meant to be returned to the government in full working order.