When 22-year-old Dylan Parker competed at the 2009 World Paper Plane Championships in Austria, he never imagined his achievements would end up on national television, featuring in his very own Australian Story episode.

Five years later, he is credited with inspiring the Australian feature film, Paper Planes.

"It wasn't long after the Australian Story when [director] Robert Connolly contacted me and said, 'I've got an idea for a film, can I come and meet you?'," Parker said.

"It was so unexpected."

Connolly said he had already been toying with the idea of making a film for kids when he saw Parker's episode Fly With Me.

"My family religiously watches the show; my 12-year-old is addicted to it," he said.

"Katherine Slattery, a young producer working with me at the time, brought my attention to Dylan's story, and we just started throwing around ideas. It was a real inspiration.

"There's something about flight: it's something that children love."

When Connolly met with Parker and fellow paper plane enthusiast James Norton, he immediately decided to bring them on board as advisers.

"It's an intoxicating enthusiasm when you meet Dylan and James, I loved it," he said.

After the initial meeting, Parker said he and Norton spent hours and hours on the phone with Connolly talking about their experience at the World Championships, and their passion for paper planes.

"There's a scene in the Australian Story episode where we're at the gym training for the competition – he wanted to know if we were actually legit, or just taking the piss a bit. And we weren't," Parker said.

"He went through the whole thing with us, searching for nuggets of gold.

"He's a really immersive person, so I think he was trying to get into our mindset. He just thought it was so weird, these guys that have this obsessive thing with these planes."

Film celebrates creative power of a piece of paper, imagination

Connolly never intended to make the film about Parker's life, but rather was inspired by his and Norton's passion and enthusiasm for the simple art of paper plane making.

Sorry, this video has expired Director Robert Connolly speaks with the ABC about Paper Planes

"There's something universal about the values of paper planes, which is what came across in Dylan's episode," he said.

"This is a film that celebrates the idea that one sheet of A4 paper, and your imagination, can be a great source of entertainment.

"I did name the character Dylan in the film, just for fun."

During the five years it took to develop the film, Parker and Norton were sent scripts, were on-set advisers, and even have a cameo appearance (they are the characters running the regional finals).

"You should have seen them on set, it was hilarious, winding the kids up and teaching them how to make the planes," Connolly said.

"I don't know how we would've done it without them. We needed our actors on camera to be able to make planes, and know how to throw them.

"They designed all the planes in the film. Their creative involvement was huge, but also their enthusiasm was invaluable."

Parker said he and Norton formed a great relationship with the all the young actors on set.

"Ed [Oxenbould] and Nick [Bakopoulos-Cooke] – by the end of it they were like paper pilots as well. They were nuts at it," he said.

"We've seen them five or six times since the filming, they're great kids."

James Norton (far left) and Dylan Parker (far right) with Paper Planes cast members (L-R) Nicholas Bakopoulos-Cooke, Ena Imai and Ed Oxenbould. ( Melbourne International Film Festival: Jim Lee )

Emotional Parker 'really proud' of Paper Planes film

At the film's premiere in Melbourne last August, Parker and Norton were special guests, and were so excited they sat right at the front in the middle.

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"It was really emotional," Parker said.

"I've been through a fair bit to get to this point, in nice ways and weird ways. So when the movie actually started, I felt really proud. And James felt the same thing I'm sure of it.

"And although it's not a narrative that follows our real lives, there are hundreds of things in there that I remember telling Robert, even down to little looks the actors give."

But this is not the first time Connolly has found inspiration through Australian Story.

Back in 2007 when he was developing the film Balibo, he saw an episode about Michael Stone, an Australian Army Major who was seconded as an adviser to former East Timorese president Jose Ramos-Horta.

"Seeing the episode on Michael Stone led me to invite him to act in the Balibo film. He's in the opening scene, having never acted before. He also became our adviser on the film. So all roads lead to Australian Story," he joked.

As for Parker's personal story, he remains in great health several years after the discovery and removal of a large brain tumour, which was documented in his Australian Story episode.

He and James have continued their side project Paper Pilots, teaching paper plane workshops and providing demonstrations at schools and events – more recently in Sydney at the Tropfest Film Festival.

But despite becoming the third best paper plane thrower (for distance) in the world back in 2009, Parker has not been able to return to the World Championship to better his record.

"The competition is only open to students, unfortunately. Obviously we've got to grow up and earn money for rent and all that," Parker said.

"But James and I are going to make a world record one day. Not sure what it is yet, it still needs more planning."

In the meantime, they can tick "inspire and appear in a feature film" off their bucket list.

Paper Planes is released in cinemas nationally today.