Montreal got an Oscar shout-out on Sunday as Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski won the Academy Award for best animated short film for The Girl Who Cried Pearls.
“We just really want to thank our amazing neighbourhood and the amazingly talented community of artists that we’ve had the superb luck to work with,” Szczerbowski said in his acceptance speech. “Thank you to the fantastic city of Montreal. Thank you, Canada.”
“Canada!” Lavis chimed in.
The film, which uses stop-motion animation, includes a twinkling instrumental score by the filmmakers’ longtime friend and collaborator Patrick Watson.
It tells the story of a destitute boy living in the streets of St-Henri in early 20th-century Montreal. He is offered a way out when he encounters a down-on-her-luck girl who weeps pearls of sorrow at night.
Watson assembled an orchestra of musicians including Arcade Fire’s Richard Reed Parry on upright bass, Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s Sophie Trudeau on violin, Brad Barr on guitar and Rebecca Foon on cello.
“I guess we wanted to repay a cultural debt to the city we live in, to use all the nourishment we’ve got from the sickeningly amazing art scene around us,” Szczerbowski told The Gazette in January.
“We also reached deep into the well of history and art,” Lavis added. “There are elements of our love of Mordecai Richler and Gabrielle Roy in this, even though it’s an original story. We wanted to add to that continuum of fables about Montreal.”
Lavis and Szczerbowski were nominated for an Oscar in 2008 with their NFB animated short Madame Tutli-Putli.
On stage Sunday, Szczerbowski also thanked “the National Film Board, our amazing producers Julie Roy, Marc Bertrand and Christine Noël and our wonderful collaborators Brigitte Henry, Patrick Watson, Colm Feore and James Hyndman.”
Lavis spoke first, saying: “Oh boy, we really are nervous. People think it takes patience to take five years to make a puppet film. It actually takes patience to live with someone who takes five years to make a puppet film.”
He then thanked his wife and daughter, and Szczerbowski thanked his.
The Girl Who Cried Pearls can be viewed for free at nfb.ca and on the NFB’s YouTube page.
Praise for the film’s Oscar victory was swift online, with Montreal’s mayor, Quebec’s premier and the federal minister of Canadian identity and culture among those offering congratulations.
Related