The animated short film The Girl Who Cried Pearls (La jeune fille qui pleurait des perles), directed by Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski for the National Film Board of Canada, is in the running for an award in the “Best Animated Short Subject” category for the Annie Awards in Hollywood.

This is the latest tribute to this stop-motion animation fable, among the 15 films on the shortlist for the “Best Animated Short Film” category for the Oscars.

The Montreal duo first captured the world’s attention with the NFB short Madame Tutli-Putli, which won 45 awards and distinctions, including an Oscar nomination for “Best Animated Short” in 2007.

This sixth collaboration between Lavis and Szczerbowski and the NFB is the result of a remarkable creative partnership spanning two decades and is the subject of a new NFB blog post.

The Girl Who Cried Pearls is now streaming for free on NFB.ca, YouTube, and all NFB Apps in Canada. The film will also be on the program at New York City’s Animation First Festival, which runs from February 5 to 8 this year.

Presented by ASIFA-Hollywood, the Los Angeles chapter of the International Animated Film Association, the 53rd Annual Annie Awards ceremony will take place on Saturday, February 21, 2026, at UCLA’s Royce Hall in Los Angeles.

To learn more about the film, you can read Samuel’s text here.

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