07/06/2018 - A selection of 40 feature films, 27 short films, and several master classes and talks will unspool at Malta’s most important film gathering

From 8-17 June, the Maltese capital will host the fourth edition of the Valletta Film Festival, a gathering organised by the Film Grain Foundation aiming to strengthen Malta’s national film culture as well as highlighting the country’s role on the international stage. Directed by Oliver Mallia and Slavko Vukanovic, the festival has selected a total of 40 feature films and 27 shorts that will screen across eight different sections. 

Seven films, already highly acclaimed – and some of them awarded – at international festivals, will vie for the prizes in both the Feature Films Competition and the Documentaries Competition. Danish filmmaker Mads Brügger’s St. Bernard Syndicate [+see also:
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interview: Carlos Marques-Marcet
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interview: Małgorzata Szumowska
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interview: Damiano and Fabio D’Innocenzo
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interview: Babis Makridis
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interview: Wolfgang Fischer
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Besides the Short Films Competition, the festival is making room for a number of Special Screenings, including two Maltese-produced projects: the documentary Malta to Motor City by Charlie Cauchi, about the Maltese migrant experience in Michigan, and the omnibus film Tafxnaf, directed by 22 students from Malta and Gozo, and commissioned by the Valletta 2018 – European Capital of Culture Project. Sections entitled Without Borders, Teens Only and Islanders (a very original sidebar, open to productions mainly set on islands or produced by filmmakers who are citizens or residents of an island) round off the programme. 

The present and future of the Maltese film industry will also be covered at the festival through an industry talk on the topic, moderated by Charlie Cauchi. Professionals will also have the chance to get acquainted with the Euro Connection short-film co-production marketplace at the Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival, Eurimages, and documentary and animation filmmaking during various panels.

The festival will also celebrate this year’s guest, British filmmaker Peter Greenaway, hosting a master class with him on Sunday 10 June, as well as screenings of a selection of his films, plus the documentary The Greenaway Alphabet [+see also:
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film profile], directed by his wife, Dutch multimedia artist Saskia Boddeke.