Flow (2024 film)

Plot

A dark grey cat wanders through a forest and steals a fish from a pack of dogs, escaping a chase. A deer stampede precedes a massive flood that sweeps the cat and dogs to higher ground. A yellow Labrador Retriever follows the cat to an abandoned cabin with wooden cat sculptures, then joins the other dogs on a passing boat. The cat climbs a giant cat statue as waters rise, then jumps into a sailboat carrying a capybara.

The next morning, the cat falls overboard and is saved from drowning by a mutated whale, but a secretarybird seizes it; during flight the cat glimpses massive stone pillars. The secretarybird drops the cat back onto the boat. The capybara invites a ring-tailed lemur aboard with a basket of trinkets. The cat has a nightmare of circling deer and floodwaters.

The three animals land on shore, joined by the Labrador. They encounter hostile secretarybirds; the younger secretarybird that first met the cat loses a duel, injures its wing, and is abandoned by the flock, then joins the crew. The crew reaches a half-submerged city near the stone pillars. The Labrador takes the lemur's glass float to the secretarybird, which kicks it off the boat, causing a fight that tangles the mast in a tree.

The whale breaches, freeing the boat. The cat improves its swimming and fishing. The crew rescues the other dogs stranded in a bell tower.

Production

Zilbalodis based Flow on his 2012 short film Aqua, about a cat overcoming fear of the ocean. After using Maya for earlier works, he switched to Blender in 2019 for its real-time renderer EEVEE. Production began in 2019 and took five and a half years. No storyboards were used; Zilbalodis placed animals in scenes and explored them with the camera.

There are no deleted scenes. Take Five and Sacrebleu Productions joined in 2022 for character animation and sound. Materials were presented at the 2022 Cartoon Movie forum. Funding came from the National Film Centre of Latvia, the State Culture Capital Foundation of Latvia, the Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée, ARTE France, Eurimages, RTBF, and the Belgian Tax Shelter.

Animation was completed in France and Belgium. Capybaras and lemurs were studied at zoos including the Izu Shaboten Zoo in Japan. The whale was redesigned to look more mythical; the secretarybird was changed from a seagull because the seagull was too small. The boat was inspired by Mediterranean feluccas.

Sound designer Gurwal Coïc-Gallas used actual animal sounds; his cat Miut voiced the cat. A baby camel sound replaced the capybara's actual tickled noise. A tiger sound pitched down was used for the whale.

Release

Flow made its debut on 22 May 2024 at the Cannes Film Festival, where it was selected for the Un Certain Regard section. It was the first Latvian film to appear in that section since 1998. At the Annecy International Animation Film Festival later that year, it picked up three awards in the feature film category: the Jury Award, the Audience Award, and the Gan Foundation Award for Distribution. The Ottawa International Animation Festival gave it the Grand Prize for Feature Animation.

It also screened at the Toronto, Vancouver, Busan (as part of Open Cinema), and Melbourne film festivals, winning the Special Jury Award at Melbourne. The Latvian premiere took place at Riga’s Splendid Palace on 28 August 2024, with a nationwide release the next day via Baltic Content Media. UFO Distribution handled the French theatrical release on 30 October 2024. In the United States, Janus Films and Sideshow gave it a limited release in New York and Los Angeles on 22 November 2024, expanding to 200 theaters on 6 December.

Le Parc Distribution released it in Belgium on 15 January 2025, and it opened in 800 Mexican theaters on 1 January 2025. PVR Inox Pictures brought it to India on 28 February 2025, and Madman Entertainment released it in Australia on 20 March 2025. A board game based on the film came out in January 2025, and HarperCollins published a picture book adaptation on 2 December 2025. On home video, Fnac released a Blu-ray on 4 March 2025, Curzon Film issued a 4K Blu-ray in the UK on 30 June 2025 (including the short films Aqua and Priorities and the documentary Dream Cat), and The Criterion Collection released a 4K Blu-ray in the US on 23 September 2025, which added Zilbalodis’ 2019 feature Away.

Reception

Flow became the most-viewed theatrical film in Latvian history, selling over 306,000 tickets and overtaking Blizzard of Souls. It became Janus Films' highest-grossing US film with $4 million in ticket sales, surpassing Drive My Car. By June 2025, it had grossed over €50 million globally. In Mexico, it grossed over $6.3 million; Zilbalodis screened the film for free at the Zócalo in Mexico City on 30 April 2025 before 15,000 people.

Calum Marsh of The New York Times wrote that the animals act like animals, giving authenticity to the adventure. Jake Coyle of the Associated Press called it the best animated film of 2024, praising its surrealism. Christian Blauvelt of IndieWire gave it an A rating, comparing it to Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron. Bill Hader named it his favorite film of 2024.

IndieWire ranked it number 26 on its list of the 100 Best Movies of the 2020s (So Far) in June 2025. Flow was the first independent film to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, and the second animated film nominated for both Best International Feature Film and Best Animated Feature after Flee. It also won the Independent Spirit Award for Best International Film, the first animated feature to win any Independent Spirit Award.

Did You Know?

• The film's score was composed by Zilbalodis and Rihards Zaļupe; seven hours of music were composed, with 50 minutes used in the film.
• A statue of the cat from Flow was installed in Riga, initially outside the Freedom Monument, then moved to Brīvības Square in April 2025.
• In December 2025, the Bank of Latvia issued a commemorative silver collector coin featuring characters from the film, limited to six thousand pieces.