The 33rd International Festival of Children's Theatres – Subotica presents an extensive program of accompanying events along with the 17th Research Forum on Children’s and Youth Theatre

The 33rd International Festival of Children’s Theatres Subotica, held from September 20 to 25 and organized by the Open University Subotica, will once again feature an extensive programme of accompanying events, including numerous exhibitions, book promotions, workshops, and film screenings. The 17th edition of the Research Forum on Children’s and Youth Theatre, hosted by Dr Marijana Prpa Fink, will also take place as part of the festival.

This year's edition of the Forum, which will take place at the Subotica City Library, from September 21 to 24, will focus on researching the topic of Phenomenon of Space and Environment in Theatre for Children and Youth.

Theatre scholars and researchers – 21 experts in the field of theatre for children and young people from nine countries – will explore the space in which a theatrical event takes place or an artistic idea develops as a cultural framework that acquires new meanings and perspectives through the theatrical act. They will examine how the environment in which theatre takes place opens up new possibilities and new choices that can, in turn, become artistic content.

Forum participants will also present essays which will be promoted at the next year’s Festival in an anthology to be published by the Theatre Museum of Vojvodina and the Open University Subotica.

The festival's program of accompanying events will feature exhibitions, book promotions, film screenings, workshops, one out-of-competition performance and several discussion panels with Festival award winners.

On Sunday, September 20, at 6 p.m., the exhibition The Child and the Puppet: The Theatre of Sándor Hartig, created by Ljiljana Dinić, will open at the Subotica National Theatre, marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Puppet Theatre in Zrenjanin. The exhibition is dedicated to the work and ideas of Sándor Hartig – a theatre director, writer, translator, actor-puppeteer, and puppet designer and maker, as well as the founder of the Puppet Theatre in Zrenjanin.

On Monday, September 21, at 11:30 a.m., the traditional Student Festival Poster Exhibition will open at the Danilo Kiš Foundation for Youth Culture and Creativity, featuring posters created by students of the Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade. Later in the day, at 1:15 p.m., an exhibition honouring the recipients of the 2026 Little Prince Lifetime Achievement Award, Todor Valov and Svetlana Mihajlović, will open at the Open University Subotica Gallery. The exhibition pays tribute to their dedication and outstanding contribution to the field of theatre for children and young people.

An important part of the festival programme is the series of talks with the recipients of the festival awards, held at Hotel Patria. On Tuesday, September 22, at 6:30 p.m., the venue will host a discussion panel with Svetlana Mihajlović, followed by a conversation with Todor Valov at the same time the next day. On September 24 at 6:30 p.m., a discussion with the recipient of the Oton Tomanić Award, Gunnar Horn will take place.

Several books and publications will also be presented to the public at Hotel Patria. The monograph 70 Years of the Children’s Theatre of the Republika Srpska will be promoted on September 21 at 6:30 p.m., while at 7 p.m. the same evening, the 23rd issue of Niti, a journal dedicated to the art of puppetry, will be presented, along with the 16th collection of essays, Theatre for Children: an Artistic Phenomenon.

On Thursday, September 24, at noon, the City Library will host a presentation of Friends from Nature, a collection of children’s poetry in dialogue form, accompanied by illustrations for colouring, by Svetlana Pravdić. The book is the fruit of the author’s many years of labour. Drawing on her experience as both a mother and a playwright, she has sought to capture the beauty of nature and the values of friendship through stories inspired by everyday life.

The festival’s film programme will take place every day from September 21 to 25 at 11 a.m. at Eurocinema in Subotica. The programme includes five animated films: Chickenhare and the Secret of the Groundhog (September 21), Heidi: rescue of the Lynx (September 22), Stich-Head (September 23), The Last Whale Singer (September 24), and The Crystal Planet (September 25).

On Thursday, September 24, at the Subotica National Theatre, the Subotica Symphony Orchestra will perform Sergei Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, Op. 67, one of the best-known works of music written for children. In this unusual musical fairy tale, each character has a distinctive musical voice. The festival performance will offer children a unique opportunity to enter the world of the orchestra, discover its instruments, and experience classical music not as something distant and inaccessible, but as something lively, playful, humorous, and full of imagination. The concert will be performed in Hungarian at 11 a.m., and in Serbian at noon and at 1 p.m.

Branka Rudman’s workshop Speech Disorders in Preschool and School-Age Children and the Puppet as a Medium for Speech Development will take place on September 21 from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. at the Danilo Kiš Foundation for Youth Culture and Creativity. Jovan Caran’s workshop A Universe Made of Cardboard, an introduction of sorts to the world of theatre, will be held on September 24 at 11 a.m. at the same venue.

The competition programme of the 33rd International Festival of Children’s Theatres in Subotica, taking place this year from September 20 to 25 and organized by the Open University Subotica, will feature 13 productions for children from around the world, selected by the festival’s selector, Dr Marijana Prpa Fink. This year, children and young people, as well as festival guests, will have the opportunity to watch 13 selected productions from China, the United Kingdom/Wales, Poland, Spain, Italy, Bulgaria, Hungary, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina/Republika Srpska, and Serbia.

The International Festival of Children’s Theatres Subotica is traditionally supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia, the Provincial Secretariat for Culture, Public Information and Relations with Religious Communities, and the City of Subotica. The Theatre Museum of Vojvodina acts as the festival’s production partner, while the Open University Subotica serves as its executive producer.