By CHEYANNE MUMPHREY, Related Press
LOS ANGELES (AP) — “Flow,″ a wordless cat parable, won the Oscar for animated feature at Sunday’s 97th Academy Awards. The win gives Latvian filmmaker Gints Zilbalodis his first Academy Award.
“Flow” was made with Blender, a free, open-source graphics software program software utilizing laptop generated animation. The result’s a dreamy aesthetic paired with a peaceable, but post-apocalyptic, fable a few black cat, canine, capybara, ring-tailed lemur and secretary chook attempting to outlive a catastrophic flood. The movie has no dialogue and forces viewers to be mesmerized by the unlikely relationship and understanding between the species attempting to flee the rising waters.
It’s solely Zilbalodis’ second animated movie as a director.
″Thanks to my mother and pop. Thanks to my cats and canine. I’m actually, moved by the nice and cozy reception our movie has had. I hope this may open of doorways to unbiased animation filmmakers world wide,” stated Zilbalodis. “This is the first time a film from Latvia has ever been nominated. So it really means a lot to us. We are very inspired and we hope to be back soon.”
Zilbalodis’ surprising Oscar contender — and now winner — has been welcomed with open arms this award season. The win Sunday provides to an already spectacular resume for the brand new director, which features a finest animated characteristic win on the Golden Globe Awards and nominations from Critics Selection Awards, Annie Awards and British Academy Movie Awards.
The success of the movie is shared with producers Matīss Kaža, Ron Dyens and Gregory Zalcman. The Latvian, French and Belgian co-production was additionally nominated for finest worldwide characteristic movie, and is the primary Latvian movie to be nominated on the Academy Awards.
The movie beat one other atmospheric story in “The Wild Robot,” in addition to “Inside Out 2,” Disney’s highest-grossing film final 12 months, and Claymation movies “Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl” and “Memoir of a Snail.”
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Initially Revealed: March 2, 2025 at 4:55 PM PST
