This year’s Oscars ceremony was certainly one for the books, with notable moments such as Sean Baker’s “Anora” sweeping the awards show with wins, Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande’s masterful musical performance and a James Bond film collection tribute.
Among those victories celebrated that evening was a humble animated international film by the name of “Flow”, which won the coveted awards of Best Animated Feature and Best International Feature Film.
“Flow” is being regarded as one of the best animated feature winners, and is a huge triumph for not just the world of indie animation, as the film had a humble budget and team, but also for the entire country of Latvia, as this is the first Oscar ever awarded to a film from Latvia.
“Flow” is filled with astounding visuals sure to take anyone’s breath away and holds a heartwarming story of friendship at its core, making this movie an enjoyable and pleasurable watch.
“Flow” is a silent animated adventure film directed by Lativan director Gints Zilbalodis, and was released in 2024. The film follows the story of an unnamed black cat who must learn to traverse a flooded landscape and create trusting bonds with fellow animals he encounters along the way. The story starts out in the middle of a lush wilderness, where our protagonist, the unnamed black cat, wanders around before noticing a deer pack running from a flood.
To escape the rising water, the black cat jumps aboard a small sailboat with a capybara on board as its captain.
The two animals sail along, adding a lemur, dog and secretarybird to their ever-growing crew. The crew sails on until they reach a towering mountain, where the secretary bird begins flying towards the sky and disappears. The story ends with the water draining and the black cat saving his furry friends from their old boat falling down a cavern.
The entire story felt magical, especially in a visual sense, and held deeply meditative qualities. The lack of dialogue allowed the soundtrack to shine, and the overall musicality of the film was very soothing.
The most standout part of “Flow” was its themes and morals, those being themes of attachment, trust, kindness and resilience. Many of the animals within the film express an attachment to something frivolous, such asthe lemur’s trinket hoarding habits, and the secretarybird’s attachment to its flock’s strict hierarchy.
“Flow” tells the viewer that attachments like those previously mentioned aren’t important in the grand scheme of life – the most important attachments are the friendships we create and foster.
Trust was an important part of the film as well, with the black cat being a character who needs to learn to trust more. The black cat is constantly standoffish towards the other animals on the ship, and mostly escapes to the top of the sailboat to be alone.
After the secretarybird defends the black cat from some other birds, the black cat opens itself up to a possible friendship and expresses its trust by giving the bird some fish. The black cat learns selflessness and friendship, which leads to the capybara being saved, and the group of animal compatriots celebrates this victory.
An important part of this film is its indie roots, as this movie was created with a budget under $5 million dollars and was animated entirely in the free-to-use application Blender.
It’s amazing that a film that was going up against many big budget and big studio films such as “Inside Out 2” and “The Wild Robot” was able to triumph in the awards season, and it marks a historic win for budding indie animators.
Indie animation has been making great waves throughout the digital world, such as indie shows on Youtube or crowdfunded show pilots being picked up by large media companies.
It’s charming and refreshing to see a small film outside of the Hollywood sphere picking up so much well deserved praise and compliments.
Overall, “Flow” is a beautiful and charming film that is a refreshing watch for any fan of animated films.