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National Film Board of Canada brings Lavis and Szczerbowski’s Oscar-winning The Girl Who Cried Pearls to audiences around the world. Montreal duo’s haunting stop-motion fable goes global on NFB.ca.

PRESS RELEASE
19/03/2026

March 19, 2026 – Montreal – National Film Board of Canada (NFB)

The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) is bringing Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski’s Oscar-winning stop-motion fable The Girl Who Cried Pearls to viewers around the world. 

Named Best Animated Short Film at the 98th Academy Awards, the English-language version of this haunting Montreal-set and produced short—narrated by Colm Feore—is now streaming for free on NFB.ca and all NFB apps, available worldwide (*excluding France and its overseas territories, Germany, Spain and Andorra).

Quick facts 

The Girl Who Cried Pearls by Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski (17 min 37 s)
Produced by Julie Roy, Marc Bertrand and Christine Noël
Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/the-girl-who-cried-pearls

  • A celebration of the magic of stop-motion animation, 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.
  • This was the second trip down the red carpet for the acclaimed Montreal animation duo, who captured global attention with their 2007 short film, Madame Tutli-Putli, which earned them their first Oscar nomination for Best Animated Short and kicked off a stellar 20-year collaboration with the NFB.
  • The film features a star-studded creative team, including a film score by Patrick Watson 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.

NFB and the Oscars

Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/oscars

  • NFB productions and co-productions have received 12 Oscars and 79 nominations.
  • The NFB received an Honorary Academy Award for “overall excellence in cinema” in recognition of its 50th anniversary in 1989.

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Version française ici.

Media Relations

  • About the NFB

    Founded in 1939, the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) is a one-of-a-kind producer, co-producer and distributor of engaging, relevant and innovative documentary and animated films. As a talent incubator, it is one of the world’s leading creative centres. The NFB has enabled Canadians to tell and hear each other’s stories for over eight decades, and its films are a reliable and accessible educational resource. The NFB is also recognized around the world for its expertise in preservation and conservation, and for its rich and vibrant collection of works, which form a pillar of Canada’s cultural heritage. To date, the NFB has produced more than 14,000 works, 7,000 of which can be streamed free of charge at nfb.ca. The NFB and its productions and co-productions have earned over 7,000 awards, including 12 Oscars and an Honorary Academy Award for overall excellence in cinema.