What links the Caribbean, ancient Rome, Enid Blyton\u2019s Land of Spells, the south of France and the Bay of Pentos from Game of Thrones? They are all places that have been portrayed in recent and forthcoming films by a sunny archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea, no bigger in size than Sheffield.<\/p>\n
Malta has over the last decade risen to become one of the most popular places in Europe<\/a> for American and British film-makers to set their works in, taking a lead in what has been described as an \u201carms race\u201d to lure big movie productions with tax incentives.<\/p>\n The EU\u2019s smallest country has hosted more than 30 film and TV productions each year in each of the last three years, including a record 36 in 2023 and 2025. They include Jurassic World Rebirth<\/a>and Gladiator II<\/a>, this spring\u2019s Blyton adaptation The Magic Faraway Tree<\/a> and the new Jason Statham action thriller Mutiny, out at the end of this month.<\/p>\n On the screen, Malta<\/a> has stood in for Greece (in the BBC\u2019s recent Two Weeks in August), 1980s Sicily (Heidi Ewing\u2019s forthcoming British feature The Travel Writer), rural southern France (Channel 5\u2019s cosy crime drama The Madame Blanc Mysteries) and the Caribbean (Guy Ritchie\u2019s forthcoming Layer Cake follow-up Viva la Madness).<\/p>\n Sally Lindsay (in red) as Jean White in The Madame Blanc Mysteries, set in southern France and filmed in Malta. Photograph: Mark Cassar\/Clapperboard\/Channel 5 Television<\/p>\n The island is even starting to represent itself: the third season of Netflix\u2019s detective drama Enola Holmes decamps from Victorian London to the then British-occupied island, and principal photography is due to start next year for TV auteur Stephen Poliakoff\u2019s The Order, set on the eve of the 1565 siege of Malta by Ottoman forces.<\/p>\n \u201cFor such a small European country, Malta is really punching above its weight,\u201d said Adrian Wootton, the chief executive of the British Film Commission. \u201cIt\u2019s been very aggressive, in a positive way, about diversifying its industry.\u201d<\/p>\n The microstate\u2019s history of hosting cinematic productions dates back to 1925\u2019s silent maritime drama Sons of the Sea, and since the 1970s it has hosted two of the world\u2019s largest water tanks designed to allow film-makers to shoot maritime scenes in a controllable environment.<\/p>\n But in the past its film industry was essentially seasonal, said Johann Grech, Malta\u2019s film commissioner. \u201cNow, we have an industry that is working every day, all year round.\u201d<\/p>\n Its success is largely due to the broader global upheaval of how film-making is financed. Until the early 2000s, audiovisual productions in Europe were mostly funded by direct funding, such as film funds or selective grants.<\/p>\n Over the last few decades, however, films are increasingly made possible by tax incentives, such as cash rebates that production companies are reimbursed after filming if they hire local crews or rent facilities.<\/p>\n Nicola Coughlan in the Enid Blyton adaptation The Magic Faraway Tree. Photograph: Entertainment Film Distributors<\/p>\n Such financial incentives now make up almost half of European fiction films\u2019 budgets<\/a>, and mean that \u201cfilms and series no longer simply occupy locations, they are engineered around them\u201d, as a recent report by the European Audiovisual Observatory noted.<\/p>\n Malta, which introduced a cash rebate mechanism in 2005, has aggressively ratcheted up its offering over the last decade, to what the Napoleon and Gladiator II producer described<\/a> as \u201cprobably the most generous cash rebate in the world\u201d.<\/p>\n All of the 36 major productions that filmed in Malta in 2025 qualified for a 40% cash rebate, which, unlike in some competing states, can also be applied to crew and equipment coming in from abroad if it can\u2019t be sourced locally.<\/p>\n At the Mediterrane film festival on the island in June, Grech announced his intention to further improve the rebate model, which runs out in 2028, and to find private investment to build an \u20ac80m (\u00a370m) studio complex. \u201cEvery euro that we invest in the rebate, the industry generates back four,\u201d he said in an interview. \u201cThe film industry is becoming an economic pillar for our country.\u201d<\/p>\n Some critics in Malta say the country\u2019s rise as a filming location has come at the cost of neglecting local cinematic talent. Examples of Maltese films engaging audiences outside its borders are few and far between: Alex Camilleri\u2019s 2021 film Luzzu, which contended for the grand jury prize at Sundance, is a rare exception.<\/p>\n