Nothing we got from Skorba would qualify as treasure in most people’s understanding of the word but Skorba scored very high when it came to information treasure.
SKORBA is a production company working across film, publishing, exhibitions and festivals, founded by Emma Mattei.
FILM
Kinemastik NGO (2004 – present)
Co-Founder & Program Director
Kinemastik is a cultural NGO founded in 2004, and based in Malta.
We are responsible for a year-round program of film screenings, workshops, talks, mentorship, concerts, exhibitions and film production. The Kinemastik International Short Film Festival has been running for 22 years and remains the sole independent film festival in Malta and Gozo.
Concerts: Patti Smith, Bonnie Prince Billy, Aaron Dilloway, Justice Yeldham, Owen Pallett, Oren Ambarchi.
Arts Council Malta Evaluator (Internationalism). Jury: Milano Film Festival, Guanajuato Film Festival. Q+A: Valletta Film Festival.
Secret Group (2014-19)
Program Director & Partnerships.
London-based entertainment company specialising in large-scale, interactive film and festival experience reaching over one million ticketed attendees. Global screening partnerships (British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Centrepoint, PEN). Program Future Shorts – quarterly film program screened worldwide.
Baħar Biss (2024)
Dir. Franziska Stenglin
Premiere: DOK Leipzig in competition (2024).
Porto/Post/Docs- Awarded Best Film in the International
Medium-Length & Short Film Competition (2025).
International Film Festival Rotterdam (2025),
Beldocs (2025).
Cinema du Réel Paris (2025).
DaFilms (2026).
Commission - Malta biennial 2024.
Development Producer (MT, DE)
Antenna–TV (2028)
Archival Documentary/in development
Dir. Emma Mattei
Encountering Atlantis (2027)
Documentary/in development
Dir. Bettina Hutschek
Co-Producer (DE, MT)
Regno Ragno (2028)
Documentary/in development
Dir. Ana Shametaj
Development, Co-Producer, Co-writer (IT, MT)
Burbank Syndrome (2027)
Docufiction/in production
Dir. Pia Borg
Development Producer (MT)
Ried Jkun Jaf (2018) (Valletta Capital of Culture, Malta)
Dir. Edward Said
Producer
Passage (2022)
Dir. Teresa Busuttil
Single channel digital video
Malta Footage.
Atlantis (2013)
Dir. Ben Russell
Production (Kinemastik)
Premiere: Visions du Réel, Nyons, Switzerland.
Awards: Prix Nouvelles Vagues, Festival international du
film de la Roche-sur-Yon, France, 2014.
Screenings: Tate Modern (Passage of Clouds).
Featured in: Vdrome, Le Cinema Club, Artforum.
Bus Terminus (2012)
Documentary about the semi-autonomous bus service in
Malta on the eve of its demise.
Dirs. Emma Mattei, Harry Malt, Duncan Bone.
Audience Award KISFF 2012, Malta.
CURATORIAL
Malta Contemporary Art Biennial – Insulaphilia, Inaugural Edition 2024.
Curator, Main Exhibition and Public Program
Heritage Malta, national agency for museums, conservation practice and cultural heritage.
72 local and international artists across 15 Heritage sites in Malta and Gozo.Neolithic sites – underground passageways, forts and buildings of geopolitical importance, some of which had never been visited by the general public, were identified, upgraded and transformed into dynamic sites of convergence.
Artists: Laure Prouvost, Cecilia Vicuña, Pedro Reyes, Mel Chin, Tania Bruguera, Monica de Miranda, Isabelle Borg, Austin Camilleri, Ibrahim Mahama, Rosa Barba, Jean Marie Appriou, Buhlebezwe Siwani, Adama Delphine Fawundu, Zehra Dogan, Zineb Sedira, Basim Magdy, Adrian Paci, Guadalupe Maravilla, Agnes Questionmark, Jermay Michael Gabriel, Matteo Vettorello, Andreco, Franziska Stenglin, Post Disaster Rooftops, Raphael Vella, Bettina Hutschek, Martina Georgina, Romeo Roxman Gatt, Aaron Bezzina, Sandra Zaffarese, Teresa Antignani, Teresa Busuttil, Nina Gerada, Ana Shametaj & Giuditta Vendrame, Laura Besançon, Tom Van Malderen, Edson Luli, Simon Benjamin, amongst others.
Public Program: 106 events targeted different audience types, including early childhood schools, elderly communities, local university students and European and international students and bilateral educational exchange projects. Collaboration extended to both Maltese and international institutions, including ACCLA, Alien Montesin, Art Explora, Art Workers Italia, Biennale Sur, Mirjana Batinić, Marie Briguglio, Valentina Buzzi, Rafram Chaddad, Centru Tbexbix, Epicure, Timmy Gambin, Liam Gauci, Marcia Grima, Image Threads, Karmaġenn, Larnaca Biennale, Magna Żmien, MADE Program, MCAST, Parasite, Rethinking Lampedusa, Rivoluzione delle Seppie, Ritmu Roots Music Festival, Virgilio Sieni, Żugraga, Michael Taussig, Tarzna, Tetuhi, The School of Winds and Waves, UNESCO - WHIPIC and Orientale University (IT).
Film Program: Orlando, My Political Biography dir. Paul B. Preciado, What About China? dir. Trinh Minh-ha, Being in a Place: A Portrait of Margaret Tait dir. Luke Fowler, Точка . Зору (Point of View) dir. Vadim Dumesh, Demonic dir. Pia Borg, She is the Other Gaze dir. Christiana Perschon, A Dream Journal dir. Jon Rafman, Bejn Is-Sema u L-Art dir. Adrian Camilleri, Hello Dankness dir. Soda Jerk.
EDITORIAL
Uncommon Publishing – Malta, Stockholm, Dubai, Cairo, London, Algiers (2010 - 2016). Founder & Editor-in-Chief.
A collaborative project involving more than 200 contributors as a series of international books challenging the notion of travel guide, revealed through the stories and images provided by people connected to place, celebrating the 'habit of flux'.
Uncommon Malta and Gozo (2011); Uncommon Stockholm (2013); Uncommon Dubai (2014); Uncommon London (June 2015); Uncommon Cairo (2016).
Press: The Sunday Times (UK), DOMUS online, Easy Jet Traveller Magazine, N Magazine (Norwegian Air/Ink Publishing), Time Out Dubai.
Stockists: Anthropologie (Worldwide), Marc Jacobs BookMarc stores, OFR (Paris), Yvon Lambert (Paris), Moderna Museet (Stockholm), NK (Stockholm), Waterstones (UK), Foyles (UK), Stanfords (UK), Daunt (UK).
JOURNALISM
Malta Book Festival 2024 – live interview with Paul Lynch, Booker Prize Winner 2023.
The Times of Malta, (2006 - ongoing).
The Malta Independent.
Malta Today.
Dapper Dan magazine, Greece
We Are Listen, NYC.
Malta Tourism Authority, UK.
Aalto fashion label, Paris, France.
Rikke Ruhwald fashion design and sculpture, Denmark.
Scanorama SAS airline Magazine, Sweden.
Ada Bligaard Søby filmmaker, Denmark.
Zina de Plagny fashion label, Paris, France.
Studio For Potential Design, Pieces: a group exhibition about fragments at Sir John Soane's Museum, London, UK.
Raw Edges design studio, UK.
The Sea Is My Land (Feltrinelli, 2013), Italy.
Awguri, Giovanni Bonello (Merlin Publishers, 2017), Malta.
Rukh magazine, France.
Chris Briffa Architects, Malta.
Content House, Malta.
Homeworks Magazine, Malta.
The People, Malta.
Malta This Month, Air Malta magazine, Malta.
EBM magazine, Malta.
Foodist magazine, Malta.
Pippa Mattei, food writer, Malta.
Johan Sandberg, photographer, France.
Simon Bajada, photographer & food writer, Sweden.
Kurt Arrigo, photographer, Malta.
Those Eyes, These Eyes, They Fade - photographic group show curated by Anne Immelé - Valletta Contemporary.
Ilaria Bernardini, author, Italy.
Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide.
Marriott International.