Yahoo Lifestyle ‘Flow’s’ Shock Golden Globe Win Is a Long Overdue Triumph for Indie Animation
In a major upset, Latvian director Gints Zilbalodis’ “Flow” won the Golden Globe for best animated feature on Sunday evening. A co-production between Latvia, Belgium, and France with a modest $3.7 million budget, “Flow” made waves simply by earning a nomination in a category traditionally dominated by big-budget studio films.
While it’s handled by Sideshow and Janus Films whose track record includes the Oscar-winning “Drive My Car,” “Flow” faced an uphill battle in the Golden Globe race, competing against two Disney/Pixar blockbusters (“Inside Out 2” and “Moana 2”), a DreamWorks feature by animation legend Chris Sanders (“The Wild Robot”), a big-budget Netflix production from Oscar-winning Aardman Animations (“Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl”) and Oscar-winning director Adam Elliot’s “Memoirs of a Snail.”
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In the film, a biblical flood has submerged everything in its path, including Cat’s home. There are no humans to be found anywhere, although their material legacy remains. Luckily for “the “Flow’s” feline protagonist, it finds refuge on a boat full of other presumably homeless animals. Together, the group sets sail on the flood waters.
“Flow’s” victory reflects how inclusive the Golden Globes have become towards independent and international titles in recent years, especially when compared to other major Hollywood awards ceremonies.
Last year, Makoto Shinkai’s “Suzume” earned a surprise nomination, and the year before, Masaaki Yuasa’s “Inu-Oh” made an unexpected but welcome appearance alongside the charming “Marcel the Shell with Shoes On” by Dean Fleischer-Camp. This year, Elliot’s Australian stop-motion film “Memoirs of a Snail” also earned a nomination.
“Flow” didn’t come from nowhere, either. Represented internationally by animation experts at Paris-based Charades (“Mirai,” “I Lost My Body,” “Chicken for Linda!”), the movie had an impeccable festival run that kicked off at Cannes, where it world premiered in Un Certain Regard and went on to win awards at Annecy, Ottawa, Guadalajara, and Melbourne film fests. The film has also already scored wins at the European Film Awards, Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards and New York Film Critics Circle Awards. On Jan. 12, it will compete for a Critics Choice Award.
“Flow’s” Golden Globe award is also a win for the democratization of the animation process. The film was created using Blender, a free, open-source software widely used by independent and amateur animators. This marks the first time a Blender-made production has won the Golden Globe for animated feature, proving that major success in the medium is, at least theoretically, open to all creators, not just those working in the studio system.
During his acceptance speech, Zilbalodis acknowledged the significance of his little film winning the award, not only for those involved but for the entire Latvian film industry. “This film is made by a very small young but very passionate team in a place where there isn’t a big film industry. So this is the first time that a film from Latvia has been here, so this is huge for us,” he explained.
The 31-year-old director went on to briefly discuss how the production of this film differed from his previous works and how both its on-screen and behind-the-scenes messages are especially poignant in 2025.
“This is a very personal story to me because I used to work alone. I made all my films by myself, but this time, I worked with a team, and just like the cat in ‘Flow,’ I had to learn to trust others and learn how to collaborate and overcome our differences. I think it’s very important to remember this nowadays,” he added.
Looking ahead, “Flow’s” unexpected Golden Globe win has opened up the race for the animated feature Oscar. With no clear frontrunner, pundits have previously favored “The Wild Robot” and “Wallace & Gromit ” — the latter being Variety‘s pick as of Jan. 3 — over the more commercial or independent international contenders. A Golden Globe win for “Flow” may change some minds in that regard.
If “Flow” or any non-Disney film were to win the Oscar, it would signal the longest drought in the category for Disney. Since the creation of the animated feature Oscar in 2001, Disney/Pixar has never gone more than two years without winning. Its last win came in 2021 with “Encanto,” but the past two years saw victories for “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” (2022) and Hayao Miyazaki’s “The Boy and the Heron” (2023).
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