Oscars shortlist for Best Animated Short Film includes National Film Board of Canada fable The Girl Who Cried Pearls by Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski

December 16, 2025 – Montreal – National Film Board of Canada (NFB)

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced that the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) stop-motion animated fable The Girl Who Cried Pearls by Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski is among 15 films shortlisted for the Academy Award for Animated Short Film at the 98th Oscars.

The Montreal duo first captured global attention with their 2007 NFB short Madame Tutli-Putli, which garnered an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Short  and received 45 awards and honours.

Winner of the Short Cuts Award for Best Canadian Short Film at TIFF, The Girl Who Cried Pearls 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.

The Girl Who Cried Pearls is available on NFB.ca, YouTube and all NFB apps in Canada.

About the film

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

• Set in Montreal at the dawn of the 20th century, 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. This meticulously crafted film is a celebration of the magic of stop-motion animation, and a timeless parable of desire, deception and the price of innocence.
• 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 30 festivals and won 9 awards and mentions.
• It’s Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski’s sixth collaboration with the NFB—a stellar run of animation excellence spanning two decades.

Key honours and awards

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

About the filmmakers

• Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski (Clyde Henry Productions) are award-winning writers, directors and animators. Rich in surreal detail, dark humour and evocative artistry, their work explores the mystery and strange beauty of life.
• Along with Madame Tutli-Putli, their acclaimed NFB credits include Higglety Pigglety Pop! or There Must Be More to Life (NFB/Warner Brothers, 2019), a Maurice Sendak adaptation featuring Meryl Streep; art direction for Guy Maddin’s The Forbidden Room (Buffalo Gal Pictures/Phi/NFB, 2015), recognized with a Canadian Screen Award nomination; and the VR stop-motion work Gymnasia (Felix & Paul/NFB), winner of the Canadian Screen Award for Best Immersive Experience.

NFB at the Oscars

• To date, NFB productions and co-productions have garnered 78 Academy Award nominations and 11 Oscars.
• The NFB also received a 1988 Honorary Academy Award for overall excellence in cinema.
• For more information, visit: nfb.ca/oscars.

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