Oscar Winning Short | The Girl Who Cried Pearls | Interview with Christopher Lavis

In this episode of 1st on Film, we sit down with Oscar-nominated filmmaker Chris Lavis to discuss his haunting stop-motion short The Girl Who Cried Pearls.

Created alongside longtime collaborator Maciek Szczerbowski, the film tells a dark fairytale set in early-20th-century Montreal about a poor boy who discovers a mysterious girl whose tears transform into priceless pearls. As greed, love, and morality collide, the story becomes a powerful fable about the cost of ambition and the value of empathy.

We talk with Lavis about the painstaking craft of stop-motion animation, the years-long journey to bring the film to life, and the inspiration behind its gothic visual style. He also reflects on the film’s festival run — including winning Best Canadian Short Film at the Toronto International Film Festival — and what it means to earn an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Short Film.

Chris Lavis is a Canadian filmmaker and animator known for his distinctive stop-motion storytelling and richly atmospheric visual style. Based in Montreal, Lavis frequently collaborates with animator and director Maciek Szczerbowski, forming one of Canada’s most celebrated animation duos.

Their breakthrough film, Madame Tutli-Putli, earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Short Film and helped establish their reputation for blending surreal imagery with emotionally resonant storytelling.

Lavis later co-directed the stop-motion short The Girl Who Cried Pearls, produced by the National Film Board of Canada. The 17-minute film premiered at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, won multiple festival awards, and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Short Film.

Across his work, Lavis is known for meticulous handcrafted animation, haunting visual worlds, and stories that explore human emotion, morality, and myth through the language of animation.