During the most important awards in the film industry, seeing a variety of countries recognized for their talent is as magical as cinema itself. Canada is no stranger to the film industry. Major companies often choose the country’s natural scenery and modern downtowns as more affordable locations compared with the United States. At the 89th Academy Awards, Canadian talent was represented in several categories.
Canadian nominees
The Girl Who Cried Pearls
Nomination: Best Short FIlm
Directors: Chris Lavis & Maciek Szczerbowski
Format: Animated short, 17 minutes
Studio: National Film Board of Canada
Release: 2025
In Montreal, a poor boy falls in love with a girl whose tears turns into pearls. Tempted by the power of greed, the boys sells the pearls to a ruthless pawnbroker, who can’t never have enough pearls. The stop-motion short shows the struggle between love and fortune.
Lavis and Szczerbowski are award-winning writers, directors and animators based in Montreal. Together, they co-founded the animation studio Clyde Henry Productions. Their film debut was the stop-motion short Madame Tutli-Putli, which was also nominated for best animated short film at the 2008 Oscars.
The five-year project began during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the impact on the film was not entirely negative. Speaking to Skwigly, Henry said: “The first few months of isolation allowed us to fully concentrate on sculpting and building the puppets instead of our original plan, which was to multitask and work on the animatic, schedule and editing all at once. The puppets definitely benefited from that singular focus.”
Stop-motion is an incredibly detailed form of production. As Szczerbowski said in a CBC interview “It’s the slowest possible way of making a film.”
In stop-motion, every second of film consists of 24 individual frames (photos). Every character and setting in each frame is real. Lavis said: “It’s all handcrafted. Every piece of dust, every eyeball of a character is painted. Every movement is done frame by frame.”
Produced and distributed by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), the short has collected several festival wins, including best Canadian short film at the Toronto International Film Festival and the International Character-Based 2D Award in Los Angeles. Reacting to the Academy Award nomination, Lavis and Szczerbowski said in an interview with the NFB “We are over the moon! … Thank you to the National Film Board of Canada, to the country of Canada!”
The Girl Who Cried Pearls is available to watch on the National Film Board of Canada’s website.
Perfectly a Strangeness
Nomination: Best Documentary Short Film
Directors: Alison McAlpine
Format: short documentary, 15 minutes
Studio: Second Sight Pictures
Release: 2024
From the movie page, the summary reads: “In the dazzling incandescence of an unknown desert, three donkeys discover an abandoned astronomical observatory and the universe. A sensorial, cinematic exploration of what a story can be.”
Alison McAlpine is a writer and filmmaker born in Vancouver, B.C., who now resides in Montreal. Her debut feature, Cielo, premiered at the 55th New York Film Festival in 2017. The film has played at more than 350 international film festivals and won six awards.
For Perfectly a Strangeness, McAlpine set out to create a fable-like story unfolding over 24 hours, using only music and sound effects. She had two starting points for the film’s creation. The first stemmed from her initial experience of a place: her visit to the La Silla astronomical observatory in Chile’s Atacama Desert. Located about 2,400 metres above sea level, McAlpine was struck by the enormous metallic domes. She said the structures felt alive with their loud purrs.
The second inspiration came from the donkeys that roamed beneath the observatory. Watching them gaze at the sky above, she came up with the question, “How do the donkeys see this world?”
According to IMDB, Perfectly a Strangeness has received 16 nominations and won four awards to date.
Available on Crave.
Canadian-based talent on nominated films
Maggie Kang
Maggie Kang, also known by her Korean name Kang Min-ji, is a Korean Canadian writer and director. Kang was born in Seoul, South Korea, and immigrated to Canada at age five. She studied animation at Sheridan College and began her career at DreamWorks Animation as a story artist. Films she worked on as a story artist include Kung Fu Panda 3, Trolls and Puss in Boots.
KPop Demon Hunters is nominated for best animated feature and best original song for “Golden.” Rumi, Mira and Zoey are K-pop superstars who do more than just sell out stadiums. When they are not performing for their loyal fans, the trio protects the world from supernatural danger.
KPop Demon Hunters is her original work. The film combines interests and passions inspired by her Korean heritage. Kang said K-pop was not as popular among her Toronto teen friends in the 1990s, and she followed K-pop bands separately from her friends. The story for the film came to her while she was driving around her neighbourhood with her husband.
KPop Demon Hunters is a multidimensional success. Besides surpassing 535 million views worldwide, the soundtrack also dominated the charts. As reported by Billboard, the soundtrack held the No. 1 position on the Billboard 200 for two months. “Golden” was No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for eight weeks.
Domee Shi
Domee Shi is a Chinese Canadian writer and director. She immigrated to Canada at age two. An animation graduate of Sheridan College, she interned at Chuck Gammage Animation and Pixar, which led to a full-time job. With her short animated film Bao, she became the first woman to direct a short film for Pixar. Bao won best animated short film at the 91st Academy Awards, making Shi the first woman of colour to win in that category. Her other films include Turning Red and Elio, which is nominated for best animated feature film.
Elio was released in June 2025 and was directed by Domee Shi, Madeline Sharafian and Adrian Molina. The story follows Elio, an underdog with an active imagination who is mistakenly identified as Earth’s ambassador to the rest of the universe. He begins to form new bonds with different aliens while discovering his true self.
Despite the positive reviews, Elio struggled with its theatrical release, with the worst debut in Pixar’s history with $21 million against the $150 million budget.
Available on Disney+
Canadians Jordan Samuel and Cliona Furey are nominees for best makeup and hairstyling for Frankenstein.
Into it! 
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