THE GIRL WHO CRIED PEARLS

Directed by Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski, this haunting stop-motion animated short is the winner of the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film at the 98th Academy Awards. Set in early 20th-century Montreal, the story follows a poor boy who discovers a girl whose tears turn into pearls. What begins as survival soon becomes a moral dilemma as greed takes hold. Caught between compassion and ambition, he must confront the cost of exploiting sorrow in this dark, poetic fable of desire and innocence.