Help Amber to San Diego Children's Film Festival!

Hello! My name is Amber and I am a stop motion animator, director and 3D artist from Perth, Western Australia.

I am reaching out to you today to humbly request your support in helping me further my professional development. My little short film ‘Stan and Sven: A Plan to Help Stan’ has been receiving some recognition at film festivals internationally over the past 6 months and I have just been granted a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to screen my film and attend the San Diego Children’s Film Festival in July, at Comic-Con International: San Diego 2023. Through my attendance, I will be given the opportunity to attend a Q&A after the screening to discuss the project and my creative work as a practitioner and promote the film (and upcoming book) at their table. As part of my attendance, I will also be provided a 4-day professional badge for the Comic-Con itself, which as an animator and 3D artist I have always dreamt of attending.

As an emerging practitioner in my field of animation, this experience will help me grow in learning to talk about my practice and allow me to network greatly with other international artists, writers and filmmakers. Unfortunately, being from Australia, this opportunity is quite expensive and although I have part-time and casual work, I simply cannot afford it after needing to relocate back home interstate to Western Australia from Victoria, battling through major financial losses due to COVID-19 in 2020, then several months of pregnancy complications leading to giving birth to a premature baby, all whilst juggling my Masters in Animation, Games and Interactivity at RMIT University, which I will complete end of May 2023.

Current funding bodies for screen have a list of particular festivals and conferences that are covered with travel support, however this event is unfortunately not listed despite being as large as it is, which means I need to get myself there.

The cost for the trip to get me there will be between $7000-8000. San Diego Comic-Con is the largest pop-culture convention in the world with some 140,000 visitors and has partnered with the San Diego International Children’s Festival for the past 15 years. As a result of the event being so huge and during summer, hotels are quite expensive and also losing availability fast. I plan on being in San Diego for 7 days. Two days for a travel buffer to ensure I don’t miss the event with any flight delays and can recover from some jetlag (34+hrs travel and 3 flights from Australia), the event over 4 days and a day to wind down and enjoy some sightseeing before flying home again. The (2*) hotel will be $4700 for this time and for a return flight I will be looking at nearly $2900, without any spending money for food and transport.

At this stage, I am hoping to raise enough funds to get myself there, however, should I be fortunate to raise any more, I would love to get the writer of the film and book (and my partner of 16 years) to also attend for the cost of an extra flight. They are also an emerging practitioner in their field and this story and film would not have been possible without them! We planned to launch the book campaign for ‘Stan and Sven’ mid-year, which would coincide with this event and allow us to build a broader audience in an international space.

Over the last 5 years, I have been working extremely hard at building my animation and 3D skills through my Masters's Degree, which has seen me awarded the John Bird Award for Outstanding Achievement, been recognised on the Dean's List at RMIT University, become a recipient of the IGDA Foundation Scholar program and after a lot of blood, sweat and tears and pushing through many challenges along the way, I am now one unit away from graduating. I have learnt so much throughout this journey at RMIT MAGI and am proud of this little, short film as part of my major animation work. To be able to showcase this film at Comic-Con as part of the children's film festival is a great honour and I am truly humbled to be a part of it all. It is a special little story that although written for children, provides a deeper message for all and to be able to be there in person to talk about it in more depth with audiences would be a wonderful way to complete my degree and start a new professional pathway.

With your generous support, I will be able to cover flights + accommodation to fulfil this wonderful opportunity, which will make a huge difference in my life as an emerging artist and may also present further creative opportunities in the future as a result. I haven't yet had the opportunity to support my work internationally in person and any amount you can contribute will help me to achieve this goal, be greatly appreciated and cherished for years to come.

To read more about my short film, please visit: https://amberstaceyfilm.com/stan-and-sven

Stan and Sven: A Plan to Help Stan - Official Selections/Awards to date:

San Diego Children’s Film Festival

L.A International Children’s Film Festival

Atlanta Children’s Film Festival

New York International Women’s Festival (Semi-Finalist)

Animovies at the Festival of Animated Objects

Short to the Point Film Festival

Berlin Shorts Award (Semi-Finalist)

4Theatre Online Film Festival (Winner)

Short-Filmz.net

Student World Impact Film Festival (Current Nominee)

Animated Expressions Expo

Walthamstow International Film Festival