Two NFB Films Honored at TIFF 2025: The Girl Who Cried Pearls Wins Best Canadian Short Film
Toronto, September 14, 2025 – The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) had a major showing at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), with two of its productions receiving top recognition.
Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski’s stop-motion short The Girl Who Cried Pearls took home the Short Cuts Award for Best Canadian Short Film, while Min Sook Lee’s deeply personal documentary There Are No Words earned an honourable mention for Best Canadian Feature Film.
For Lavis and Szczerbowski, the award marks another milestone in their celebrated careers. The Montreal-based duo, best known for their Oscar-nominated short Madame Tutli-Putli (2007), premiered The Girl Who Cried Pearls in North America at TIFF after its world debut at Annecy earlier this year.
“For over two decades, we’ve been proud to create Canadian, hand-crafted films. So, for us, there are few honours that match winning the award for Best Canadian Short Film on the fiftieth anniversary of TIFF,” said Lavis and Szczerbowski.
The 17-minute film is described as a haunting fable of sorrow, love, and greed. It features Colm Feore in the voice cast, with music by Polaris Music Prize winner Patrick Watson, sound design by Olivier Calvert, and artistic direction by Brigitte Henry. The film was produced for the NFB by Julie Roy, Marc Bertrand, and Christine Noël.
TIFF’s Best Canadian Short Film is a qualifying award for the 98th Academy Awards, positioning the project as a potential Oscar contender.
Next, The Girl Who Cried Pearls will screen at three major Canadian festivals: SPARK ANIMATION in Vancouver (Sept. 18–21), the Ottawa International Animation Festival (Sept. 24–28), which will also present a special tribute to the filmmakers, and the Calgary International Film Festival (Sept. 18–28).
Meanwhile, Min Sook Lee’s There Are No Words resonated with juries for its powerful exploration of memory, trauma, and family history. The 98-minute feature revisits the life of Lee’s late mother, navigating fragmented memories and intergenerational silence.
“This film honours my mother, Song Ji Lee, a working-class immigrant woman who lived and died on her terms,” said Lee. “TIFF’s Honourable Mention ensures a counter-archive, insisting that how we remember the past shapes the present we build.”
Produced by Sherien Barsoum and Chanda Chevannes for the NFB, There Are No Words continues Lee’s decades-long body of work exploring resistance, migration, and feminist narratives.
With both awards, the NFB reaffirms its global reputation for bold, innovative storytelling in both animation and documentary film.
