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The Paper Prince was first made as a short film in 2005.
That year it won Best Local Short and Best Director at the 52nd Belgrade Short and Documentary Film Festival.
It also won the prestigious Jovan Acin Award given by the Serbian Culture Ministry in association with the Association
of Film Artists and Radio Television Serbia. The same year the film was among the finalists for the Best Balkans Film
award of the Short Film Festival in Drama, Greece.
The Paper Prince was shown successfully at twelve international film festivals.
Given the success of the short film with both audiences and critics, the producers decided to expand the film into a feature.
Fifteen minutes of the original short film were used along with another 75 minutes of new material.
The feature-length The Paper Prince was completed with assistance from the City of Belgrade Secretariat of Culture and the Serbian Ministry of Culture.
It is aimed at entertaining and enlightening both children and their parents.
The Story
JULIJA (8) lives with her parents who love her dearly but pay little real attention to her.
One day when she has been left alone at home, Julia opens the door to NIKOLA (28), a suspicious survey-taker.
Nikola first tries to rob the apartment but is prevented by Julia and they begin to become friends. Eventually Julia gives Nikola
a pair of her mother's earrings and a passport belonging to her father.
Six months later Julia discovers that her family is in danger because of the missing passport and realises that she is responsible for this.
With the help of her school friend PEGI (8) and an eccentric old lady, EMA (70), Julia begins to try to
find Nikola in order to recover her father's passport. Along the way she discovers a lot more about her parents, society on the shaky ground
of transition and the involvement of her parents in unsavoury affairs from which Julia, in the end, manages to extricate them.
The film looks at the process of maturing in both children and adults, and at the importance of the choices made by people big and small
between good and evil. This family film is set against a social background in which politics and crime are so tightly entwined that
contact with them can't be avoided even by the nicest of middle-class families, such as that to which the heroine belongs.
FESTIVALS
XIII Sarajevo Film Festival
Bosnia, August 2007.
KidsFest
Belgrade, Serbia, October 2007.
Thessaloniki Int. F.F.
Thessaloniki, Greece, November 2007.
(industry screening only)
Mostar Film Festival
Bosnia, November 2007.
New Beijing Int. Film Festival
Beijing, China, December 2007.
Dakha Int. Film Festival
Bangladesh, January 2008.
Berlin Film Festival
Germany, January 2008.
(industry screening only)
Fest
Belgrade, Serbia, February 2008.
Montreal International Children’s Film Festival
Canada, Mart, 2008.
Sehpferdchen - Kinderfilmfest Hannover & Braunschweig, Germany, April 2008.
International Children’s F.F.
Kristiansand, Norway, 2008, April 2008.
Roma International Film Festival
Roma, Italy, April 2008.
(director Marko Kostic was awarded with Best First Feature Award)
International Film Festival „Golden Knight“
Moscow, Russia, May 2008.
(film was awarded with special diploma of the Jury)
Serbian Film Festival
Paris, France, June 2008.
International Film Festival for Children and Youth
Zlin, Czech Republik, June 2008.
Filmfest Munchen
Munchen, Germany, June 2008.
Cinema City EXIT Film Festival
Novi Sad, Serbia, June 2008.
Sopot Film Festival
Sopot, Serbia, July 2008.
Pula Film Festival
Croatia, July 2008.
Palic Film Festival
Serbia, July 2008.
Screenplay Film Festival
Vrnjačka Banja, Serbia, July 2008.
(screenwriter Vladislava Vojnovic was awarded with Second prize)
10th Seoul International Youth Film Festival
Korea (South), July 2008.
Actor’s Film Festival
Nis, Serbia, August, 2008.
Serbian Film Festival
Chicago, USA, September 2008.
Flicks International Film Festival for Young People
Saskatoon, Canada, September 2008.
MICHEL Kinder und JugendFilmfest Hamburg
Germany, September 2008.
24th Warsaw Film Festival
Warsaw, Poland, October 2008.
International Film Festival „Within the family“
Novosibirsk, Russia, October 2008.
(Milica Spasojevic was awarded as the best young actress)
International Film Festival for Children and Young People
Yerevan, Armenia, October 2008.
(Milica Spasojevic was awarded for the best performance as a child actor in the feature film)
Roshd International Film Festival
Teheran, Iran, November 2008.
(Jury awarded director Marko Kostic with Letter of gratitude; Milica Spasojevic was awarded as the best actress)
XV International F.F. „Listopad 2008“
Minsk, Belarus, November 2008.
FICI, Festival Internacional de Cine para Infancia y la Juventud
Madrid, Spain, November 2008.
(Special jury mention for Milica Spasojevic)
CIFF, Chennai International Film Festival
Tamil Nadu, India, December 2008.
Ex Yu Fest
Podgorica, Crna Gora, Mart 2009.
Festival du Film "Europe around Europe"
Paris et Normandie, France, Mart 2009.
ICFF, International Children’s Film Festival
Lucknow, India, April 2009.
(Golden trophy for best children’s film)
Balkan Film Days screenings
Hunter College, New York, USA, May 2009.
37. Festival der Nationen
Ebensee, Austria, June 2009.
International Film Festival for Children GALICJA
Krakow, Poland, September 2009.
Festival KINOdiseea
Bucharest, Romania, September 2009.
(Milica Spasojevic won the Award for the best acress)
Balkan festival
(Anthropologists Culture Association "Etnosfera")
Poznan, Poland, March 2010.
AWARDS
Best First Feature Award to director Marko Kostic
Roma Independent Film Festival (RIFF)
Roma, Italy, April 2008.
Special jury certificate for "The Paper Prince“
International Film Festival „Golden knight“
Moscow, Russia, May 2008.
Second prize for feature film screenplay to writer Vladislava Vojnovic
Screenplay Film Festival
Vrnjacka Banja, Serbia, August 2008.
Award for best young actrees to Milica Spasojevic
International Film Festival Within the Family
Novosibirsk, Russia, October 2008.
Award for best performance by a child actor to Milica Spasojevic
Fourth International Film Festival for Children and Young People
Yerevan, Armenia, October 2008.
Letter of gratitude to director Marko Kostic
Roshd International Film Festival
Tehran, Iran, November 2008.
Award for the Best Actress to Milica Spasojevic
Roshd International Film Festival
Tehran, Iran, November 2008.
Special jury mention for Milica Spasojevic
Festival Internacional de Cine para Infancia y Juventud (FICI)
Madrid, Spain, November 2008.
Golden trophy for best children’s film for „The Paper Prince“
International Children’s Film Festival
Lucknow, India, April 2009.
Award for the Best Actress to Milica Spasojevic
Festival KINOdiseea
Bucharest, Romania, September 2009.
Grand Prix, “Galicja”
International Film Festival for Children
Krakow, Poland, September-November 2009
The children's novel "The Paper Prince" was published in February, 2008 (Vladislava Vojnović, Narodna knjiga, Belgrade). As is usual, the novel does not follow the film exactly. For example, the film does not reveal all the thoughts of its hero, Julia, while in the novel they are all there in black and white: sometimes she is worried, sometimes angry, sometimes downright insolent, and almost always very funny. But whatever her mood, her thoughts are never boring.
So, if you like to read, give it a try – it doesn't cost much!
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