79th Oscar nomination for an NFB film—2nd for the Montreal-based animation duo. Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski’s National Film Board of Canada short The Girl Who Cried Pearls nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.

The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) animated short The Girl Who Cried Pearls by Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski has been nominated for Best Animated Short Film at the 98th Academy Awards.

The Montreal-based animation duo first captured global attention with their 2007 NFB short Madame Tutli-Putli, which earned them their first Oscar nomination for Best Animated Short Film.

Quotes

“We’re thrilled to be representing the country of Canada and the National Film Board of Canada at this year’s Academy Awards celebration. We’d like to thank our partners, Maija and Stephanie, and our daughters, Tuuli and Nola, for inspiring and having patience with us during the five years it took to make this film. We’d like to thank all our collaborators—including Brigitte Henry, Patrick Watson, James Hyndman and Colm Feore—for their commitment and extraordinary talent. Hopefully this tremendous honour will earn us a few free beers at our local pub. And finally, WOO HOOO!” — Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski

“Congratulations to Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski and the talented creative team who brought The Girl Who Cried Pearls to vivid life. Created in and set in Montreal, the film is their latest stop-motion marvel—part of a remarkable collaboration with the National Film Board that now spans two decades. We’re proud to be the creative home for visionary animators like Chris and Maciek, and to continue to champion Canadian storytelling that resonates with audiences here at home and around the globe.” — Suzanne Guèvremont, Government Film Commissioner and NFB Chairperson

About the film

The Girl Who Cried Pearls by Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski (17 min 28 s)
Produced by Julie Roy, Marc Bertrand and Christine Noël
Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/the-girl-who-cried-pearls

• The Girl Who Cried Pearls is a meticulously crafted fable about a girl overwhelmed by sorrow, the boy who loves her, and how greed leads good hearts to wicked deeds.
  
  
• Set in Montreal at the dawn of the 20th century, the film is a celebration of the magic of stop-motion animation.
  
  
• The film features a star-studded creative team, including Colm Feore (voice), Patrick Watson (music) and Brigitte Henry as artistic director. Sound design is by Olivier Calvert, who was on Sylvain Bellemare’s team for the Denis Villeneuve film Arrival, winner of the 2017 Oscar for Sound Editing.
  
  

Key awards and honours

Since its debut in June 2025 at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, where it was featured as an opening film and in official competition, The Girl Who Cried Pearls has screened at more than 40 festivals and received over 11 awards and honours, including:

• Annie Award nomination for Best Short Subject, ASIFA-Hollywood;
• Official Selection, Canada’s Top Ten, Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF);

• Short Cuts Award for Best Canadian Short Film, TIFF;
• Canadian Film Institute Award for Best Canadian Animation, Ottawa International Animation Festival;
• Benshi Prize – Short Films, Official Competition, Annecy International Animation Film Festival;
• Maribor Audience Grand Prix – Stop-Motion Animation, StopTrik International Film Festiva, Slovenia;
• Special Jury Mention for Best Quebec Short Film, Quebec City Film Festival;
• Special Mention – Short Film, Taichung International Animation Festival, Taiwan.

How to watch The Girl Who Cried Pearls

In Canada:

• The Girl Who Cried Pearls is now streaming free on NFB.ca, YouTube and all NFB appsin Canada.
  
  
  1. There’s also a new NFB blog postabout the filmmakers’ two-decade-long creative association with the NFB.
     
     
• It will also screen in Toronto at TIFF Lightbox 3 as part of Canada’s Top Ten Shorts Programme 1, February 6 at 1 p.m.
  
  

In the U.S.:

• The film will be presented in New York City as part of The Best of Annecy 2025at the Animation First Festival, February 6 at 9:30 p.m.
  
  
  1. The festival will also present Animating the Surreal: A Conversation with Lavis and Szczerbowski, a 90-minute discussion including shorts and clips, February 8 at 5:15 p.m.

NFB and the Oscars

Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/oscars

• NFB productions and co-productions have received 11 Oscars and 79 nominations.
• The NFB received an Honorary Academy Award for “overall excellence in cinema” in recognition of its 50th anniversary in 1989.

The 98th Academy Awards will be held on Sunday, March 15, 2026, at the Dolby Theatre, televised in Canada on CTV and CTV2, and available for live streaming on CTV.caand the CTV app.

For more than 80 years, the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) has produced, distributed and preserved those stories, which now form a vast audiovisual collection—an important part of our cultural heritage that represents all Canadians.

To tell these stories, the NFB works with filmmakers of all ages and backgrounds, from across the country. It harnesses their creativity to produce relevant and groundbreaking content for curious, engaged and diverse audiences. The NFB also collaborates with industry experts to foster innovation in every aspect of storytelling, from formats to distribution models.

Every year, another 50 or so powerful new animated and documentary films are added to the NFB’s extensive collection of more than 14,000 titles, half of which are available to watch for free on nfb.ca.

Through its mandate, its stature and its productions, the NFB contributes to Canada’s cultural identity and is helping to build the Canada of tomorrow.