International Festival of Children's Theatres

The tradition & historical record

The Subotica International Festival of Children's Theatres is an international festival dedicated to children's theatre. ¹

The festival is held annually in the third week of the month of May. It is of a competitive nature and festival awards are granted according to the evaluation of an international five-member jury. Both drama and puppet theatre productions are performed at the festival. The official selection consists of twenty theatre performances in competition. Besides official selections, the festival includes an accompanying programme encompassing street theatre, outdoor performances, festival performances throughout Serbia and in neighbouring Hungary, a film programme, scientific gatherings, exhibitions, puppetry workshops and publishing. ¹

The festival was founded in 1994 by Subotica Municipal Assembly (Vojvodina Province, Serbia). The creator of the festival and its manager (director and selector) to the present has been Slobodan Markovic. Since 2006 he has been working together with Olivera Mudrinić, current Executive Director. The festival is held under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia and the Provincial Department of Education and Culture. It is supported by the Municipality of Subotica and by numerous sponsors and donors. Executive producer of the festival is Subotica Open University. The Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia has proclaimed the festival as being of national significance, and for its accomplishments it has been awarded the greatest cultural acknowledgement in the Republic of Serbia – Vuk's Award. ¹

The stated aims of the festival are to: ¹

present the most valuable and artistically most relevant stage creations in domestic and foreign production for children. contribute to promotion of new and to further recognition of already realized cultural values on the international ground. bring nations closer and to preserve diversities of each culture as the source of our common wealth. encourage making friendships. provide exchange of experiences and to make creative connections. promote theatrical life for children and culture in general. provide the audience in Serbia with various international productions for children and youth of different age and social status. ¹

Theatre artists and theoreticians; children up to 18 years of age; childminders, parents, carers and practitioners; everyone interested in theatre for children and young people, puppet theatre, or in the art of theatre in general. ¹

The following awards are made: ¹

Grand Prix for the best performance Best direction Best stage design Best original music Best puppet design Five equal prizes for acting skills Each year the festival presents "Little Prince" Life Achievement Awards to individuals who have made exceptional contributions to the development of culture and theatre art for children. ¹

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “International Festival of Children's Theatres”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ¹

International Festival of Children's Theatres is recorded in open cultural data. The structured record cited below does not describe the practice, and this entry has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ²

The source record links this tradition to 1 external register, which can be verified through the citation. ²