Surprise victory of the process brings Oscar to Latvia, sparking national pride
flowIt’s a speechless cat fable that became the first Latvian film to win an Academy Award, making for a sleepless night to celebrate the dozens of Latvians who celebrate this historic honor.
The film won an animated album at the 97th Academy Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday, which aired Monday at 2 a.m. to watch Latvians from their homes. Made of open source software with a budget of less than $4 million, flow Hit the highest award in big budget movies like Dreamworks Animations Wild robotthe box office smash of Disney and Pixar, Inside out 2.
In thanking him for his cat and dog (one of which is a model for the character in the movie), filmmaker Gints Zilbalodis acknowledged the importance of his victory.
“I was very moved by the warm reception of my film. I hope this will open the door to independent animation producers around the world,” Zilbalodis told Los Angeles audience. “This is the first time Latvia has been nominated. So it really means a lot to us.”
The movie (called “Straume” in Latvian) is praised for using Blender, a free and open source animation software that can run on most laptops to create feature-length movies. The result is a dreamy aesthetic paired with a quiet but post-apocalyptic allegory about black cats, dogs, peppers, ring-tailed lemurs and secretary Bird, trying to survive a catastrophic flood.
The film has no dialogue and uses only its visual effects and music to bring viewers into unlikely relationships and understandings between species trying to escape the rising waters.
“I think you can say more. There is no words. Some of these emotions and thoughts I can’t express in words, but with music, sound, action and editing, I can say more.” “These are my favorite movies and favorite scenes, and are very cinematic, beyond cultural boundaries.”
“A great and historical day in Latvia”
Oscar statues are the latest source of motherland pride in the Baltic nations flow He is in the struggle since premiering at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2024. The National Film Centre of Latvia (one of the film’s supporters) is called “Unprecedented in the history of Ratvia’s films.”
The center said it had 320,000 people throughout the theater in Latvia, an audience of any other film the center has screened in the past 30 years. More than 15,000 people visited the National Museum of Art in Latvia in ten days to watch the Golden Globe Awards for the film, which is also the first award in Latvia – a public display in January.
In honor of the film, Latvia issued a special stamp to commemorate it a few days before the Oscars.
In the center of the capital, in February flowThe black cat in the center perched on the “A” to ensure that Latvians and tourists, including photos taken by Latvian President Edgars Rinkēvičs on Monday, can take photos with the famous cats.
“It’s a great and historical day for Latvia!” Rinkēvičs wrote in an article about X celebrating victory. “And it all takes time to understand what’s going on because something big and beautiful happened!”
Prime Minister Evika Siliņa added, congratulating the filmmaker’s X: “This cat continues to capture the hearts of people around the world!”
flow It’s just the second animated film with Zilbalodis as director. He is the only animator for his first feature film, 2019 leave.
Sunday’s win added the director’s already impressive resume, which included a win for Best Animation Features at the Golden Globes Awards, the highest award at the Ottawa International Animation Festival and nominations for the Critics Choice Awards, the Anne Award and the British Academy Film Awards.
The film’s success was shared with producers Matīskaža, Ron Dyens and Gregory Zalcman. Latvia, France and Belgium co-production was also nominated for Best International Feature Film at the Academy Awards, but lost to Brazil’s I’m still here.
After the ceremony, the team celebrated their style victory. In an Instagram post, Zilbalodis shared a photo of himself in an in-N-Out, still wearing a suit, burger on hand and his award sitting at the table.
