'Flow',' 'the Wordless Cat Adventure Movie, Wins Best Animated Film at Oscars 2025, Making History for Latvia
At the 97th Academy Awards on Sunday, March 2, writer-director Gints Zilbalodis, along with writers Matiss Kaza, Ron Dyens and producer Gregory Zalcman, took the stage to accept the Best Animated Feature award from presenters Andrew Garfield and Goldie Hawn.
"I am really moved by the warm reception our film has had," Zilbalodis, 30, told the Oscars audience after also thanking his parents and his cats and dogs. "I hope it will open doors to independent animation filmmakers around the world."Flow is the third animated film to be nominated in the Best International Movie category and the second animated film to be nominated for both Best Animation and International.Zilbalodis touched on the project making history as Latvia's first-ever Oscar-nominated movie. "It truly means a lot to us," he shared.
The director ended his speech by sharing a heartfelt message with the star-studded audience. "We are all in the same boat. We must overcome our differences and find ways to work together," Zilbalodis said.Also nominated in the Academy's top animation category this year were Inside Out 2, Memoir of a Snail, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl and The Wild Robot.
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Latvian director Zilbalodis' Flow, which depicts a wordless adventure story about a cat and its animal pals surviving a fantastical flood, has gone toe-to-toe with animation heavyweights this awards season. Along with its Oscar honor, the film garnered Golden Globe and Critics Choice nominations.
Related: How Flow, a Latvian Animated Movie with No Dialogue, Is Upending the Awards Race: The Story Is 'Universal' (Exclusive)
Directed by Pete Docter, Inside Out 2 offers all-new emotional adventures within the now-teenage mind of Riley (voiced by Kensington Tallman). Amy Poehler reprises her role as the fun-loving, blue-haired Joy, joined by Phyllis Smith as Sadness, Lewis Black as Anger, Tony Hale as Fear and Liza Lapira as Disgust. Maya Hawke joins the cast as a new emotion for Riley to contend with — anxiety.
The Australian stop-motion Memoir of a Snail features characters voiced by Sarah Snook, Kodi Smit-McPhee and Eric Bana. Making history as the second R-rated animated film to be Oscar nominated (2015's Anomalisa being the first), Memoir follows lonely misfit Grace Prudel as she navigates a series of misfortunes from childhood to adulthood.
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl saw the return of Wallace, Gromit and a familiar foe of theirs in the first feature-length Wallace & Gromit film since 2005's The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Directed by Merlin Crossingham and Nick Park, the stop-motion animation follows the famed duo as they attempt to clear Wallace's name when he's framed as an "evil inventor" by the fearsome penguin Feathers McGraw.
Related: Lupita Nyong'o Is Excited to Show Wild Robot to Nieces So They 'Finally' 'Understand What I Do for a Living' (Exclusive)
Lupita Nyong'o voices robot Roz in Chris Sanders' The Wild Robot, which is based on the bestselling book series of the same name. The film follows Roz after their transport ship crashes onto an island populated only by animals, including Fink the fox (voiced by Pedro Pascal) and Pinktail the possum (voiced by Catherine O'Hara). Roz's initial programming, aimed to be useful in the human world, frightens the animals. When an orphaned gosling named Brightbill (Kit Connor) imprints on her, the robot softens and learns the meaning of community and empathy.See PEOPLE's full coverage of the 97th annual Academy Awards, hosted by Conan O'Brien and airing on ABC.
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