'The Girl Who Cried Pearls', 'KPop Demon Hunters' Animated Films Win at Oscars 2026

The animation film wins in the 98th Academy Award ceremony brought a Canadian/Asian perspective overall. In the animation short film category,  Chris Lavis & Maciek Szczerbowski made it in their second Academy Award nomination. After being nominated in 2007 for the stop-motion 'Madame Tutli-Putli', their 2025, 17-minute new stop-motion film 'The Girl Who Cried Pearls', made the cut and won the Oscar for Best Animation Short.

The film, which has already traveled to an array of festivals (45 festivals and 11 awards), tells the early 20th-century story of a poor boy who falls in love with a girl, but her sorrow turns into pearls, and ruthless manipulation and exploitation ensue.

Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski already have a big (and significant) career in stop-motion animation. (Check our 2019 interview with the duo, conducted by Olga Bobrowska).

A National Film Board of Canada production (producers: Julie Roy, Marc Bertrand, Christine Noël), this is the second time a stop-motion NFB short film has won the Academy Award for Best Animation Short (the first stop-motion winners were Co Hoedeman's 1977 sand-animated film 'The Sand Castle').

'The Girl Who Cried Pearls' is one of the short animation films that made its name before winning an Academy Award nomination, and certainly it will be more remembered in the indie animation community (and subsequently referenced in animation history) than some recent 2020's Oscar winners in the same category.

Watch the Oscar win for 'The Girl Who Cried Pearls'

The other nominees:
"Butterfly" (Papillon), Florence Miailhe (France)
"Forevergreen", Nathan Engelhardt, Jeremy Spears (US)
"Retirement Plan", John Kelly (Ireland)
"The Three Sisters", Konstantin Bronzit

The other 10 Oscar-shortlisted films.

"Autokar", Sylwia Szkiłądź (Belgium, France)
"Cardboard", J.P. Vine (UK)
"Éiru", Giovanna Ferrari (Ireland)
"Hurikán", Jan Saska  (Czechia, France, Slovakia, Bosnia & Herzegovina)
"I Died in Irpin", Anastasiia Falileieva (Czechia, Slovakia, Ukraine)
"The Night Boots", Pierre-Luc Granjon (France)
"Playing God", Matteo Burani (Italy, France)
"The Quinta’s Ghost", James A. Castillo (Spain)
"The Shyness of Trees", Sofiia Chuikovska, Loïck du Plessis D’Argentré, Lina Han, Simin He, Jiaxin Huang, Maud Le Bras & Bingqing Shu (France)
"Snow Bear", Aaron Blaise (US)

Read Also: The Controversy behind Konstantin Bronzit's Oscar nomination

KPop Demon Hunters

In the feature animation category, Netflix's (and Sony Pictures Animation) urban musical, 'KPop Demon Hunters' by Maggie Kang, Chris Appelhans, and Michelle L.M. Wong  (US) was the winner -sidelining both the Disney (Zootopia 2) and Pixar (Elio), as well as the Annecy Cristal winner 'Arco' by Ugo Bienvenu. (The film went on to win the Best Original Song as well for the song 'Golden'). The Korean pop cultural phenomenon was strong enough on its own (last year's recipient was the indie Latvian/French/Belgian 'Flow' by Gints Zilbalodis).

The other nominees:

Arco, Ugo Bienvenu, Félix de Givry, Sophie Mas and Natalie Portman (France)
Elio, Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina and Mary Alice Drumm (US)
Little Amélie or the Character of Rain, Maïlys Vallade, Liane-Cho Han, Nidia Santiago, and Henri Magalon  (France/ Belgium)
Zootopia 2, Jared Bush, Byron Howard and Yvett Merino (US)

Watch the 'KPop Demon Hunters' Oscar-winning clip:

The 98th Oscars were held on Sunday, March 15, 2026, at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood.

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