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'Flow', Latvia's trailblazing animation, wins Oscar

Article (news)

Agence France-Presse

<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1740967284502Flow_Janus_Poster_27x40_02_web (2)_original.jpg" style="width:633px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/></div><p>RIGA, Latvia - &quot;Flow&quot;, a dialogue-free tale of animals surviving disaster, scored Sunday&#x27;s Oscar for best animated feature, capping a remarkable awards season for the Latvian film made on a minuscule budget.</p><p>The moving film follows a solitary black cat who, confronted with a sudden flood, reluctantly embarks on a journey in the company of an unlikely menagerie including a buoyant golden retriever and an unruffled capybara.</p><p>Independent Latvian filmmaker Gints Zilbalodis&#x27;s work bested &quot;Inside Out 2&quot;, &quot;Memoir of a Snail&quot;, &quot;Wallace &amp; Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl&quot; and &quot;The Wild Robot&quot; to claim the prize, the first ever for Latvia.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/entertainment/2024/6/12/inside-out-2-review-this-should-be-required-viewing-for-teens-and-some-adults-too-746">Inside Out 2 review: This should be required viewing for teens (and some adults, too)</a></div><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/entertainment/2024/10/11/movie-review-disney-x-miyazaki-the-wild-robot-1536">Movie review: Disney x Miyazaki = &#x27;The Wild Robot&#x27;</a></div><div><br/></div><p>Zilbalodis acknowledged that achievement onstage in accepting his statuette, while also nodding to a core tenet of the film: &quot;We&#x27;re all in the same boat, we must overcome our differences and find ways to work together -- thank you.&quot;</p><p>For Zilbalodis, the story reflects his own experience: that of an individualist -- he made his first film on his own -- learning to work in a team.</p><p>&quot;This is a story about a character who starts out being very independent, and then has to learn how to trust others and how to collaborate,&quot; Zilbalodis told AFP in an interview before the Oscars.</p><p>To Zilbalodis, the endeavour paid off: with a modest budget of $3.6 million, &quot;Flow&quot; has won audiences and critics alike, all while making history for Latvian cinema.</p><p>Its Oscar nominations in the best animated feature and international film categories were a first for any film in the Baltic country of 1.8 million people.</p><p>&quot;Flow&quot; won a Golden Globe in January; it was then the highest prize ever for a Latvian film, drawing more than 15,000 fans to the museum in Riga where Zilbalodis displayed the statuette.</p><p>The film opens with the cat discovering that people have deserted their dwellings and water is approaching the nearby meadows.</p><p>Against this apocalyptic background, the cat forms an unlikely comradeship with a dog, a capybara, a secretary bird and a lemur -- all displaying the distinctive features of their species.</p><p>As they board a sailboat amid surging water, the pack learns how to cooperate and respect each other&#x27;s needs and boundaries.</p><div><strong><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZgZccxuj2RY?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></strong></div><div><strong>- &#x27;Tickle the capybara&#x27; -</strong></div><p>Zilbalodis created the film on Blender, a free open-source software, and modelled his animal characters after careful observation of their traits.</p><p>While not a word is uttered throughout the film, the protagonists make their own sounds that the filmmaker recorded from real-life animals -- with one notable exception.</p><p>The capybara needed &quot;extra assistance&quot;, Zilbalodis said, explaining that to record it, the crew visited a zoo, only to find that capybaras are normally silent.</p><p>&quot;A zookeeper had to actually go in and tickle the capybara,&quot; Zilbalodis said.</p><p>The result was not what the crew expected -- a high-pitched sound that the &quot;Flow&quot; team judged incompatible with the laid-back capybara.</p><p>Ultimately, the alternative sound actor they opted for was a baby camel.</p><p>&quot;Flow&quot;, only the second animated film in Oscar history to be nominated in both the animated and international feature categories, continues to break records.</p><p>Latvia&#x27;s film centre has said more than 300,000 people saw it in cinemas, making it the most-viewed film in Latvian history, surpassing &quot;Avatar&quot; and &quot;Titanic&quot;.</p><p>Zilbalodis said he partly attributed this success to the &quot;innocence&quot; of the animals.</p><p>&quot;This just shows that we can connect with these types of characters, because we have a lot more in common than we might think,&quot; he said.</p><p>&quot;We all share the same fears and instincts and needs.&quot;</p><p>mmp/amj/sst/mdo</p><div><br/></div><p>© Agence France-Presse</p>

<p>"Flow", a dialogue-free tale of animals surviving disaster, scored Sunday's Oscar for best animated feature, capping a remarkable awards season for the Latvian film made on a minuscule budget.</p>

"Flow", a dialogue-free tale of animals surviving disaster, scored Sunday's Oscar for best animated feature, capping a remarkable awards season for the Latvian film made on a minuscule budget.