Fireworks lit up the sky of Valletta, the capital of Malta, on Sunday night to celebrate the Golden Bee Awards. Hosted by Jack Whitehall, the ceremony closed the Mediterrane Film Festival, highlighting the Mediterranean island’s century-long relationship with cinema. “It’s like Hollywood. But unlike Hollywood, they have actual film productions,” Whitehall joked onstage.
Haley Bennett won best performance for her work in “Virginia Woolf’s Night & Day,” singer and actress Dove Cameron received the rising star trophy and Steven Soderbergh’s “The Christophers” was chosen the festival’s best featured film.
The black-tie event was designed to impress. Drones and water choreography, acrobats, and a floating pianist paired with over-the-top performances by Leona Lewis and opera singer Joseph Calleja transformed the night into a spectacle. All to show how proud the Maltese people are of their country’s relationship with filmmaking.
Commonly referred to by locals as “Mollywood,” Malta has served as a backdrop for productions such as “Gladiator,” “Game of Thrones,” and “Jurassic Park.” Since the government raised its cash rebate on local production spend to 40 percent in 2019, the island has serviced more than 200 productions.
A view of De Redin Bastion, a fortification wall surrounding the historic city of Mdina in Malta, which served as a filming location for the city of King’s Landing in the television show “Game of Thrones.”
BRYAN SHAW STUDIO
The tourism payoff was always part of the calculation. The country’s film appearances has attracted a meaningful share of visitors every year. This summer, that strategy gained a new gateway: Delta launched its first nonstop route between New York and Malta, putting the island within a single overnight flight of the U.S. market for the first time in decades.
Hospitality has noticed. Corinthia Palace, the Pisani family’s original property in Attard and the birthplace of the Corinthia Hotels brand, timed the opening of “Lorenzo Agius: Icons of Film” to coincide with the festival’s closing days. The exhibition, which opened June 25 and runs through July 31, brings together more than 60 portraits by the British-Maltese photographer — known for his Trainspotting campaign and for sitters including Ewan McGregor, Cate Blanchett and Angelina Jolie — and spreads them across the hotel’s public spaces, from Josephine’s in the lobby through to Francesco Mazzei’s restaurant at Villa Corinthia and on toward the Secret Garden.
“Lorenzo Agius: Icons of Film” at the Corinthia Palace in Malta.
Kris Micallef / Courtesy
The timing of the exhibition matters, as Corinthia Palace just completed the second phase of a refurbishment that added 74 new rooms and suites, the latest chapter for a hotel the Pisani family opened in 1968 out of what had been their restaurant.
“We believe art is not an addition to hospitality, but part of life itself,” said Alexandra Pisani, the property’s managing director, of the decision to host the show.
That blend of art and hospitality runs through Malta more broadly, an island where visitors already arrive for the limestone streets of Mdina, the turquoise water of the Blue Lagoon, the prehistoric temples at Ħaġar Qim, Gozo’s quieter coastline, and centuries of Baroque churches. Whatever brings people there first, the island is betting they’ll find a reason to stay.
