Masterclass: Producing Without Borders

Jason Statham in Malta. Joel Kinnaman and Mark Strong in Malta. And before them: five official Canada-Malta treaty co-productions made by a Canadian producer who kept coming back every few years for a decade. Two Canadian producers. One island. A masterclass on what it takes to make international productions happen – from the people who have done it here, repeatedly, at every budget level.

Producing Without Borders is a direct, experience-based conversation between two producers who have built their careers on exactly the kind of international co-production practice that Maltese producers need to understand and participate in. Aaron Barnett represents Malta at studio scale. Leif Bristow represents Malta as a sustained co-production relationship built over a decade.

Together they represent the full range of what producing without borders looks like in practice: from the studio-level coordination of a high-budget action thriller to the treaty-structured international co-production of a Hallmark Channel film that combines Canadian and Maltese financing and distribution; their combined experience is the most direct and specific account available of what it takes to build a production practice that uses Malta – not merely as a backdrop, but as a genuine creative and financial partner in internationally distributed content.