Tomorrow: Grand Opening of the 33rd International Festival of Children’s Theatres - Subotica

The 33rd edition of the International Festival of Children’s Theatres - Subotica will officially open tomorrow, Sunday, September 20, at 7:00 p.m. at the Subotica National Theatre. This year’s festival will run through September 25. During the opening ceremony, this year’s Little Prince Award will be presented to Todor Valov, while the Oton Tomanić Award will go to Gunnar Horn. Svetlana Mihajlović, the domestic recipient of this year’s Little Prince Lifetime Achievement Award, will receive her award at a later date.

Before the official opening ceremony, at 6:00 p.m., the exhibition The Child and the Puppet: The Theatre of Šandor Hartig will open, commemorating the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Puppet Theatre in Zrenjanin. The exhibition was created by Ljiljana Dinić. Following the ceremony, the programme will feature a performance of Fantastic Dreams of Mountains and Seas by Miao Zhao and performed by the Zhejiang Modern Drama Troupe from Hangzhou. The production is based on mythological stories from the Shan Hai Jing, known as the “first and most extraordinary masterpiece” of Chinese literature and an ancient text dating from the pre-Qin dynasty period. It tells the story of a boy named Leo and his adventure that transcends the boundaries of time and space.

Over the following five festival days, audiences will have the opportunity to see another 12 productions competing in the festival’s official selection programme.

The Kragujevac Theatre for Children and Young People will perform Alice’s Dreams, directed by Luana Gramegna; the Youth Theatre of Novi Sad will present The Magic Flute, directed by Renata Karola Gatica; while the domestic competition programme will also include The Butterflies in Love, written by Amela Vučenović and performed by the Subotica Children’s Theatre. The Children’s Theatre of Republika Srpska will bring The Forgotten Story, directed by Andrej Boka. Croatia’s Small Stage Theatre will present The Star and the Darkness, a play directed by Buga Marija Šimić Milošev. The Ruse State Puppet Theatre from Bulgaria will perform Aladdin and the Magic Lamp, directed by Todor Valov. The Hungarian Bobita Puppet Theatre will present The Carrot Tale, written and directed by Attila Szabó. Italy’s Quintoequilibrio Theatre will perform Felicia, a play directed by Quinzio Quiescenti. From Poland, the Pinokio Theatre of Łódź will present Ojoj: The Great Story of a Little Line, directed by Aleksandra Pejcz. Spain’s Teatro Firulete will present The Immigrant: A Puppet Tragicomedy in 8 Scenes and an Epilogue written by Marcos Vilela. From Wales arrives Where the Leaves Blow, directed by Ffion Wyn Bowen, while China will also be represented by Everything’s Changing, a play performed by the China Welfare Institute Children’s Art Theatre from Shanghai, directed by Liu Xiaoyi.

As part of the festival, the 17th edition of the Research Forum on Children and Youth Theatre, hosted by Dr. Marijana Prpa Fink, will be held at the Subotica City Library from September 21 to 24. This year’s Forum focuses on researching the Phenomenon of Space and Environment in Theatre for Children and Youth. The Forum is organised by the Open University Subotica and the Theatre Museum of Vojvodina in Novi Sad.

The festival’s accompanying programme will include exhibitions, book and publication launches, a film programme, workshops, an out-of-competition performance, and discussion panels with the recipients of the festival awards.

On Monday, September 21, at 11:30 a.m., a traditional Student Exhibition of Festival Posters, featuring works by students of the Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade, will open at the Danilo Kiš Foundation for Youth Culture and Creativity. On the same day, at 1:15 p.m., an exhibition dedicated to the 2026 recipients of the Little Prince Lifetime Achievement Award, Todor Valov and Svetlana Mihajlović, will open at the Open University Subotica Gallery.

A discussion with the recipients of the festival awards will be held at Hotel Patria at 6:30 p.m.: with Little Prince Award recipient Todor Valov on September 23, and with Oton Tomanić Award recipient Gunnar Horn on September 24.

On September 21 at 6:30 p.m., Hotel Patria will host the launch of the book 70 Years of the Children’s Theatre of the Republic of Srpska. At 7:00 p.m., the 23rd issue of the puppet theatre arts journal Niti and the 16th collection of essays, Theatre for Children: an Artistic Phenomenon will be presented to the public. The book Friends from Nature by Svetlana Pravdić will be promoted on September 24, at noon, at the City Library.

The film programme will take place from September 21 to 25 at 11:00 a.m. at the Eurocinema in Subotica. The films to be screened are Chickenhare and the Secret of the Groundhog, Heidi: rescue of the Lynx, Stich-Head, The Last Whale Singer, and The Crystal Planet.

The Subotica Symphony Orchestra will perform Sergei Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, Op. 67, on September 24 at the Subotica National Theatre – at 11:00 a.m. in Hungarian and at noon and 1:00 p.m. in Serbian.

Branka Rudman’s workshop Speech Disorders in Preschool and School-Age Children and the Puppet as a Medium for Speech Development will be held on September 21 from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. at the Danilo Kiš Foundation for Youth Culture and Creativity. The workshop A Universe Made of Cardboard by Jovan Caran, will take place on September 24 at 11:00 a.m. at the same venue.

Admission to all programmes is free. The complete festival programme is available on the festival website: https://www.lutfestsubotica.net/

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.