World Premiere of Vancouver filmmaker Wahid Ibn Reza’s NFB animated short After Us coming to SPARK. Festival will also present the BC premiere of Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski’s The Girl Who Cried Pearls.

September 9, 2025 – Vancouver – National Film Board of Canada (NFB)

SPARK ANIMATION will present the world premiere of After Us, a new National Film Board of Canada (NFB) computer animated short from Vancouver by engineer-turned-filmmaker Wahid Ibn Reza, following the journey two resilient animal survivors in a post-human world.

The festival will also feature the BC premiere of The Girl Who Cried Pearls, the latest stop-motion marvel from the Oscar-nominated duo of Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski.

Taking place in Vancouver from September 18–21, SPARK ANIMATION is Western Canada's largest celebration of animation, presented by the Spark Computer Graphics Society.

After Us by Wahid Ibn Reza (5 min 5 s)
Produced for the NFB by Teri Snelgrove
Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/after-us

• SYNOPSIS: In a world adrift, littered with post-human debris, a lone wolf and a fierce wolverine forge an unlikely bond. Together, they brave harsh elements and cross charred, desolate landscapes in search of others who might remain. Beneath the shimmering Northern Lights, nature’s persistence is illuminated and a mysterious Arctic force awakens. With more than a decade of VFX and animation experience, including Emmy-winning and Oscar-nominated projects, Wahid Ibn Reza has crafted an epic CGI voyage, and a meditation on resilience and the enduring courage of hope.

• FILMMAKER QUOTE: “I didn’t quite understand the urgency of the climate crisis until I became a father. But which story to tell? From what perspective? In the vast landscape of the climate crisis, what do I focus on? With so many voices out there, what are the voices we haven’t heard yet? I went with animals that are iconic in Canadian culture. Something about a lone wolf on a journey just seemed fitting.” – Wahid Ibn Reza  

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

• SYNOPSIS: A handmade stop-motion animated short by the Oscar-nominated duo of Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski (Madame Tutli-Putli), The Girl Who Cried Pearls is a haunting fable about a girl overwhelmed by sorrow, the boy who loves her, and how greed leads good hearts to wicked deeds.

• KEY CREDITS: Along with the talents of Colm Feore (voice) and Patrick Watson (music), The Girl Who Cried Pearls features sound design by Olivier Calvert, sound designer on the NFB Oscar-nominated shorts Affairs of the Art, Blind Vaysha and Animal Behaviour, and part of Sylvain Bellemare’s Oscar-winning team on Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival.

• PREMIERES: The Girl Who Cried Pearls had its world premiere in Official Competition on the opening night of the Annecy International Animation Film Festival and its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

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