Waiting to Hear From Julia

Waiting to Hear from Julia

Every night, he calls her voicemail

Waiting to Hear from Julia is motion blur's first feature film: a psychological drama in Maltese, set in Marsaxlokk during the first weeks of the COVID-19 lockdown in March 2020.

Matteo Dimech, 49, is a chauffeur to Malta's Prime Minister. He is disciplined and immaculate, and since the death of his wife Julia, he has also been hollowed out by grief. He holds himself together with prayer, alcohol and ritual, counting down to their wedding anniversary, a day he intends to spend "alone with her."

Then the country locks down. His estranged daughter Katy, 26, an outspoken activist, comes home unexpectedly and sick. Father and daughter are sealed in together, and the apartment Matteo keeps like a shrine becomes a battleground. Late at night he calls Julia's old mobile, just to hear her voice on the voicemail. One evening a message arrives from her number: See you tomorrow.

The film sits between genres. It is an intimate family drama with the unease of a ghost story, though it is not a ghost story: it is about how grief creates its own hauntings. It was conceived small and exact, with one apartment, two people, and a lockdown that gave a very private kind of isolation a shape everybody now recognises.

Making it in Maltese, and in Marsaxlokk, was a deliberate choice, "Malta is filmed constantly and almost never seen."

The people making it

Shirley Spiteri Mintoff directs. This is her feature debut. She co-founded motion blur and has worked in media for 18 years, directing the award-winning short films Friend or Foe and Alicia. She has also worked as a fixer and casting director on international features shot in Malta.

Mark Doneo wrote the screenplay and will play Matteo, a character he has carried for years. He created the TV series Solitaire and Miriana Coljerò, and wrote and directed the Maltese-language feature The Weeping House of Qala (2018).

The film is produced by Stanley Agius and Shirley Spiteri Mintoff through motion blur ltd., with Paul Parker (Paul Parker Films) as executive producer and Felicity Babao as line producer.

Where we are now

The film is production-ready and partly financed. In 2026, Arts Council Malta awarded it €347,000 in production funding through the Screen Support Scheme (Strand 4: Production), after supporting its development under Strand 2 in 2025.

The script is complete, and a teaser was shot in 2025, watch it above. The shoot is planned for 25 days in 2027, in Marsaxlokk, Għargħur, Valletta's Auberge de Castille and Ħal Luqa, with an epilogue in Cefalù, Sicily.

The project is starting to be noticed. In August, FilmNewEurope covered it in Maltese Director Shirley Spiteri Mintoff Preps Waiting to Hear from Julia.

What comes next

Our next step is finding a European partner. We are looking for a minority co-producer in any Creative Europe MEDIA territory that is also eligible under Eurimages, the Council of Europe's co-production fund.

That matters here because Malta joined Eurimages in January 2026. Waiting to Hear from Julia could be one of the first Maltese films to travel out through that door, and a partner who joins now would be part of that.

2026: take the project to European markets and industry programmes, starting with MIPCOM in Cannes this month (more on that in our next post).
2027: principal photography in Malta and Sicily, followed by post-production.
Late 2027 onwards: an international festival premiere, aimed at first- and second-feature strands such as Rotterdam, Karlovy Vary, Sarajevo and Tallinn Black Nights, followed by a premiere at home in Malta.

If you are a producer, sales agent, distributor or financier and the project interests you, we would like to hear from you. Write to info@motionblur.com.mt.

If you simply love film, follow along here. We'll share the journey as it happens.

Kunsill Malti għall-Arti / Arts Council Malta

This project is supported by Arts Council Malta. Waiting to Hear from Julia received funding through Arts Council Malta's Screen Support Scheme: Strand 2 (Development), 2025, and Strand 4 (Production), 2026. Find out more at artscouncil.mt.