Fourth edition of Malta Film Festival for July

The fourth edition of the Malta Short Film Festival was announced today at Studioseven.

The festival's 41 candidate short films will be screened on TVM every Tuesday at 21:45 between July and September, in an eclectic mix of films spanning various genres - from drama to comedy, to horror and mystery and more.

Produced by the newly established Malta Film Foundation, which has been set up by the producers of the festival Tony Parnis and Joyce Grech, this year's festival is supported by The Malta Arts Fund and Studioseven.

Speaking at a press conference announcing the awards today, Culture Minister Mario de Marco described the short film as an emerging genre that nonetheless deserves our attention.

"Even though the general audience may perhaps be more accustomed to feature films, short films need to be given due importance. Just as I often find it harder to write a short speech as opposed to a long one, short films perhaps require more diligence than longer films to execute successfully," de Marco said, also mentioning how local filmmakers have been noticed abroad due to their work in short films.

The festival will feature 22 participating countries, out of which 14 are European countries and eight are non-European, with many countries making their way to the official selection for the first time. Malta will be represented by nine films - some of them produced by up-and-coming filmmakers.

Trailer for Asternauts, a German-American film competing in the festival

"Every continent is represented," executive producer and judge for the festival Joyce Grech said.

"The concept itself is also unique, because nowhere else in the world is a film festival presented on television. Apart from the obvious limitations on length, the criteria for the films was based on their intrinsic quality and, crucially, on their ability to appeal to a broad audience," Grech added.

Grech explained that the a team of judges will determine the winners in the categories of Best Editing, Script, Production Design, Animation, Documentary, Sound and of course Best Picture, while the audience will be invited to vote via SMS for the Viewers' Choice award.

The judging panel will be made up of Rev Prof Saviour Chircop (Dean of the Faculty of Media and Knowledge Sciences, University of Malta), Winston Azzopardi (Leading Film Production Manager and former film commissioner), Joyce Grech (cultural journalist, media producer and festival organiser) and Tony Cassar Darien (arts commentator, film critic and former artistic director of the Manoel Theatre).

The Festival will be presented by Frederick Attard.

The first film in the series will be shown on TVM on July 3, at 21:45.

For more information log on to: http://www.maltashortfilmfest.com.