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From Montreal to New York: acclaimed NFB animation takes the stage. National Film Board of Canada in the spotlight at NYC’s Animation First Festival with 3 standout films.

PRESS RELEASE
15/12/2025

December 15, 2025 – Montreal – National Film Board of Canada (NFB)

The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) returns to the spotlight in New York City’s Animation First Festival (February 3 to 8, 2026) with internationally acclaimed shorts by new voices and Oscar-nominated visionaries from Montreal’s vibrant animation community.

The festival will feature the NYC premieres of two works by new animators that made waves at this year’s Cannes Film Festival: Hypersensitive, the first NFB film by self-taught filmmaker Martine Frossard, selected for the Official Competition, and Bread Will Walk, a surrealist satire by Alex Boya, which screened in the Directors’ Fortnight.

Also making its debut in the Big Apple is The Girl Who Cried Pearls, the latest stop-motion marvel from veteran animation duo Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski. Creators of the 2007 Oscar-nominated NFB short Madame Tutli-Putli, Lavis and Szczerbowski opened the prestigious Annecy International Animation Festival in France with their new work, which also earned the Best Canadian Short Film Award at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Now in its eighth year, the Animation First Festival is the biggest animation festival in the U.S and the only U.S. festival dedicated to French and francophone animation.

Quick facts 

Hypersensitive by Martine Frossard (6 min 44 s)
Wednesday, February 4, 2026 | 6:45 PM | Florence Gould Theater
Produced by Marc Bertrand
Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/hypersensitive

  • Hypersensitive recounts the turbulent, surrealistic journey of a young woman struggling to rebuild herself, in defiance of social norms that tell us to repress our emotions.
  • For her first collaboration with the NFB, this self-taught filmmaker continues to explore themes that have marked her work thus far: the quest for identity, the realm of perception and memory—but also grief, trauma and resilience.
  • The film was edited by filmmaker and editor Oana Suteu Khintirian (Beyond Paper). Author and actor Jean-Philippe Baril Guérard consulted on the screenplay.

Bread Will Walk by Alex Boya (11 min 17 s)
Wednesday, February 4, 2026 | 6:45 PM | Florence Gould Theater
Produced by Jelena Popović
Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/bread-will-walk

  • A devoted sister races to save her brother, a bread-turned zombie. A mob of hungry living pursues. Can love defy appetite?
  • Montreal-born actor Jay Baruchel voices all the characters in the original English version of this frenetic, surrealist satire of our dehumanizing society, designed as a continuous shot.
  • This is Boya’s third acclaimed film with the NFB, following Focus (2014) and Turbine (2018), which was named Best Animation Short at NYC Shorts.

The Girl Who Cried Pearls by Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski (17 min 28 s)
Friday, February 6, 2026 | 9:30 PM | Florence Gould Theater
Produced by 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.
  • 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.
  • Since its debut at the 2025 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.

Animating the Surreal: A Conversation with Lavis and Szczerbowski
Sunday, February 8, 2026 | 5:15 PM | Florence Gould Theater

In this presentation, the co-founders of the Montreal stop-motion studio Clyde Henry Productions will examine the evolution of cinematic puppetry and the creative process behind The Girl Who Cried Pearls. Revisiting their previous works, including the Oscar-nominated short Madame Tutli-Putli, Higglety Pigglety Pop!, Cochemare and Gymnasia, Lavis and Szczerbowski will discuss how the creative challenges and discoveries of those projects helped inspire and shape their new animated fable.

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Version française ici.

Media Relations

  • Nadine Viau
    NFB Publicist – Montreal
    C.: 514-458-9745
    n.viau@nfb.ca

  • About the NFB

    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.

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