History of the award begins in 2001 when famous Serbian actress Mira Stupica (1923-2016) celebrated her 60-years of acting.
Ill-fated Žanka, once the most celebrated Serbian actress was jailed and condemned (nearly being executed in the process) by the Communist regime in the post-war Yugoslavia as a collaborator during World War II, simply because she was performing during the war years.
[1][2] Mira Stupica and her husband, famous Slovenian-Yugoslav theatrical director and theater manager Bojan Stupica were great admirers of Žanka Stokić, and Bojan Stupica managed to convince new authorities to let her act again, but she died before she returned to the stage.
Stupica was the president for life of the award jury.
[2][3] In 2020, it was announced that the award will become biennial, initially for the 2020–2021 period.