Paper Planes, a children’s film about a young Australian boy’s journey to the world paper plane championships, has won the CinéfestOz film prize, Australia’s richest film award. The film was directed by Robert Connolly and produced by Connolly, Maggie Miles and Liz Kearney.

Connolly is best known for his work on Balibo, The Turning and The Boys, and is one of Australia’s most esteemed directors. This is his first children’s film.

Presenting the award, jury chair Bruce Beresford said it had been a unanimous decision. “It’s a charming film for children that I think will also appeal to adults, acted with great naturalism by its young cast and adult cast. Speaking as a director, I’m very jealous of the enormous skill and flair brought to this by Robert Connolly.”

Accepting the prize, Connolly expressed his thanks to the jury and spoke of what the prize will enable him to do.

“We’re going to use this money to make sure we can get our actors all over the world and get the profile of this as big as we can … My life seems to have ended up here [in Western Australia], from The Turning and These Final Hours and now Paper Planes - I’ve been spending a lot of time in WA, and it’s been fun. This is a high point.”

The other five nominees for the award were Felony by Matthew Saville, Son of a Gun by Julius Avery, The Reckoning by John V Soto, The Waler by Russell Vines and My Mistress by Stephen Lance.

The jury consisted of director Bruce Beresford (chair), producer Sue Milliken, actor Marta Dusseldorp, critic Margaret Pomeranz and film selector Benjamin Illos.

Paper Planes will next be screened at Toronto international film festival, and will be released in Australia and New Zealand on 15 January 2015.