I'm delighted to share that my latest animation - Mr Bear's Birthday (narrated by Stephen Fry) - won a Silver Award from the judges of the Collision Awards. With such humble beginnings for my animations - filming each one on a homemade set in a room at my parent's house - this award means the world. To find myself in silver place with animations by Netflix and Disney winning gold really blew me a way.
Mr Bear focuses so much on the magic of time spent with loved ones, and this award led me to embark on a truly magical trip to New York with my Dad. Having spent a wonderful weekend there together at Christmastime a few years ago, it brought a lot of joy to have another opportunity to share a trip to the Big Apple... revisiting some favourite places and discovering some new ones. The awards celebration was held in the Lincoln Centre, right next to Central Park and aside from our time there, we had a brief 48hours to soak up the wonder of Manhattan. Every moment I spent there felt like it held a wonderful unexpected bonus and I was so delighted to have been able to travel for the awards night.
At the awards evening, we watched a screening of some of the winning films and then celebrated over drinks afterwards... Being in a room with people from some incredible animation studios was such an honour, truly inspiring and hugely encouraging. It was also comforting to realise that teaching yourself, having a go and winging it will often lead you to figure things out in a way which will, in essence, mimic the ways people do things professionally.
I never imagined that Mr Bear would lead me to New York, but this little bear and his friends continue to lead me along a magical path... It often feels that way round to me.