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Published Mar 16, 2026 • Last updated 6 hours ago • 2 minute read
Canadian actor and Stratford resident Colm Feore attends the 32nd annual Actor Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on March 1, 2026. Feore narrated The Girl Who Cried Pearls, which won an Academy Award on Sunday for Best Animated Short Film. (Michael Tran/AFP via Getty Images) Article content
Stratford’s Colm Feore, a renowned stage veteran and one of the country’s most decorated actors, was the voice behind an Oscar Award-winning project.
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Feore narrated The Girl Who Cried Pearls, a 2025 National Film Board of Canada production that won the Academy Award on Sunday for Best Animated Short Film.
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“This award is a tribute to all the artists who shared this labour with us,” filmmakers Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski said in comments provided by the NFB. “They are not just names in the credits — they are our community, and their extraordinary talent and hard work made this possible. We’d especially like to thank the National Film Board of Canada for their enduring support, and the Academy for continuing to champion short animated film.
“Statue or no statue, the support we’ve gotten from friends and family these past weeks has been overwhelming. We can’t express how meaningful it’s been. Now we may finally get a free beer from our local pub.”
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A celebration of the magic of stop-motion animation, The Girl Who Cried Pearls tells the story of a girl overwhelmed by sorrow, the boy who loves her, and how greed leads good hearts to wicked deeds.
It took Lavis and Szczerbowski five years to finish the 17-minute film — their sixth collaboration with the film board — and they approached Feore to voice its characters.
The 15-year Stratford Festival veteran, who was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2013 “for his contributions as an actor of the stage and screen,” said he was “very excited” to participate.
It’s the second time Feore has appeared in an Oscar-winning film, having played lawyer Martin Harrison in the 2002 musical Chicago that won six Academy Awards, including for Best Picture.
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“I just thought it was fantastic,” he told the Stratford Film Festival when discussing The Girl Who Cried Pearls in a recent interview. “It was a fabulous piece that was beautifully done.”
Since its debut in June 2025 at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, The Girl Who Cried Pearls has screened at more than 45 festivals and received 14 awards and mentions.
“At a time when our country’s spirit is winning accolades around the world, Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski have given Canadians another reason to be proud,” government film commissioner and NFB chairperson Suzanne Guevremont said. “Congratulations to the filmmakers, our producers and our talented creative team on The Girl Who Cried Pearls, a stop-motion marvel produced and set in Montreal. We’re honoured to be the home of visionary storytellers like Chris and Maciek, and to continue to champion great Canadian stories and talents to audiences here and across the globe.”
In Canada, The Girl Who Cried Pearls is streaming for free on NFB.ca, all NFB apps and YouTube. It’s also available to Crave subscribers (English only).
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