2026 Nellie Wong Magic of Movies Essay Contest Winners
High School: Grand Prize – Zikang Wang, Abraham Lincoln High School
Paper Boat is a short film that stayed longer with me than I thought it would. It follows two siblings who spend time together folding and floating paper boats down a quiet stream in a village at the countryside while their family life slowly starts to fall apart in the background. On the surface, nothing feels dramatic or extreme, but that’s exactly what made it hit me harder than I thought it would. The sadness in this film isn’t just loud. It’s just there, slowly building in the spaces between moments.
What affected me most was the relationship between the siblings. They don’t really explain how they feel, but you can see it in the way they stay close to each other no matter what. The paper boats felt simple, but they carried a lot of meaning. To me, they felt like a small escape from reality, something the kids could hold onto when everything is falling apart. Those scenes by the stream were peaceful, but also kind of painful, because you know that peaceful moment isn’t the full picture of their lives, but a distraction.
The film works so well because it doesn’t try to force emotions. They don’t really explain how the siblings felt. Instead, it uses short conversations that feels completely normal and small details to show what’s happening. That felt really real to me. In real life, family problems don’t always come with clear explanations. Sometimes you just notice things feel different, like the atmosphere has changed, even if nobody says anything out loud.
Watching it reminded me of times when I’ve felt that same kind of quiet tension at home. Not something you can easily point out to, just a feeling that things aren’t’ exactly the same. Like the siblings, I’ve also tried to focus on small things during moments like that, just to feel a bit more normal. That’s why the film felt so personal. It captured something that’s hard to explain but easy to feel and understand.
The older brother stood out to me the most. It felt like they understood more than they showed, but still tried to stay strong for the younger sister. That kind of quiet responsibility felt very human and heartwarming. Sometimes people don’t talk about what they’re going through because they don’t want to make things heavier for someone else, especially they’re loved ones, and this film showed it in a really subtle way.
What I took away from Paper Boat is that even when things are falling apart in the background, small moments can still matter a lot. The paper boats weren’t just paper, they felt like hope, memories, and a short pause from reality. Even though the parent’s situation was unstable, the siblings still had each others back, and that connection carried the whole story. It left me with a quiet feeling, not exactly sadness, but something closer to reflection, like even the smallest moments can hold meaning when everything else feels uncertain. But at the end, things will be just fine.