\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWe beat James Cameron!\u201d the filmmaker Gints Zilbalodis said with a shy smile during a recent video interview. \u201cFlow,\u201d his second animated feature, is now one of the highest grossing films ever in his native Latvia, surpassing even Cameron\u2019s \u201cAvatar\u201d franchise at the local box office.<\/p>\n
Latvia has a population of roughly 1.8 million people, and \u201cFlow\u201d has sold more than 255,000 admissions since it was first released in August 2024. The film is still playing in Latvian theaters.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe still have sold-out screenings in week 23 now,\u201d Zilbalodis, 30, said.<\/p>\n
A critical and commercial success, Zilbalodis\u2019s computer-animated, dialogue-free film follows a group of animals helping each other survive a flood. It received two Oscar nominations last month, for best animated feature and best international feature, and is the first Latvian production nominated for any Academy Award.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Zilbalodis also recently won Latvia\u2019s first Golden Globe, beating out two major American studio contenders, \u201cThe Wild Robot\u201d and \u201cInside Out 2,\u201d in the animated feature category. That \u201cFlow\u201d is an independent production largely financed with public funding and conceived on free, open-source software called Blender<\/a>, makes the victory feel even more of a feat.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n And the director’s Baltic homeland is not being subtle about their joy over this triumph. The Golden Globe was exhibited for a week at the Latvian National Museum of Art in Riga, the country\u2019s capital, guarded by two cat statues<\/a>, in an allusion to the movie\u2019s protagonist, a dark gray feline.<\/p>\n Thousands of people lined up to see the trophy. \u201cIt\u2019s just a really nice boost of morale,\u201d Zilbalodis said. \u201cPeople are tired of bad news and maybe this film represents something that feels optimistic and hopeful in regard to the country\u2019s self-esteem.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Riga has turned into a walkable \u201cFlow\u201d celebration. Posters with the animal characters decorate the streets since Zilbalodis was honored as \u201cRiga Citizen of the Year 2024.\u201d A sign of the city\u2019s name now has a sculpture of the \u201cFlow\u201d cat perched atop the letter A<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n When Zilbalodis returned to Latvia after winning the Golden Globe, the filmmaker was welcomed at the airport by his team of collaborators as well as the country\u2019s minister of culture, the head of the National Film Center, and plenty of eager journalists.<\/p>\n \u201cYou could say Latvia is experiencing Flow-mania,\u201d Matiss Kaza, one of the film\u2019s producers, said via email. \u201cYou literally cannot walk the streets of the capital city of Riga without noticing the cat in one form or another.\u201d<\/p>\n The Latvian president, Edgars Rinkevics, has repeatedly expressed pride over Zilbalodis\u2019s accomplishment on social media, and the filmmaker has even received a call from the prime minister, Evika Silina.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are people in Latvia who can create the Flow that is currently followed by the world,\u201d President Rinkevics posted on X after the Golden Globe win<\/a>. \u201cGreat moment for the team, great moment for Latvia!\u201d<\/p>\n Yet, the attention that Zilbalodis and \u201cFlow\u201d are getting came as a shock to the system for the timid, soft-spoken animator, who admits he\u2019s often struggled with impostor syndrome.<\/p>\n Kaza suggested having a watch party for the Oscar nominations announcement with press in attendance, but an anxious Zilbalodis opted for watching at home.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cGints is more introverted than me; he used to disappear from the office from time to time during production when he needed time on his own,\u201d Kaza said. \u201cIt is just his way of working, and as a producer, I have to respect that.\u201d<\/p>\n Taking a page from a video the Swedish filmmaker Ruben Ostlund posted when he missed out on a nomination in 2015, Zilbalodis recorded himself eating an apple and hugging his dog, who was a comfortable distraction as he waited to see if \u201cFlow\u201d would be mentioned.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI\u2019m not very expressive with my emotions,\u201d he said. \u201cI had so much excitement in that moment, but maybe it doesn\u2019t come through.\u201d The video was posted on the director\u2019s YouTube channel<\/a>, and also to his account on X, where he has shared behind-the-scenes content from the production of \u201cFlow.\u201d<\/p>\n The son of a painter mother and a sculptor father (who also worked as a cinema projectionist), Zilbalodis started making animated shorts in high school. He gravitated to animation because it\u2019s a medium that he, as a young man lacking confidence, could explore on his own.<\/p>\n \u201cI felt frustrated to have all these abstract thoughts and I couldn\u2019t make other people understand me,\u201d he said. \u201cI felt through filmmaking there was a way to do that, and it might take a very long time, but I can express these things that I need to express.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Zilbalodis\u2019s parents were supportive when he decided to skip university, especially since there is no animation school in Latvia. Instead, Zilbalodis made his debut feature \u201cAway,\u201d<\/a> another fable without dialogue, about a boy and a bird on a desolate island, virtually by himself.<\/p>\n \u201cI was afraid of dialogue and afraid of working with actors,\u201d he said. \u201cWith animation, I could avoid that and just tell stories with images and sounds.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n He taught himself the software to animate the characters, as well as how to do sound design and even basic music composition to score the picture. \u201cMy goal was to learn all these skills so that eventually I could work with experts in these fields, and I could understand what they\u2019re doing and communicate better with them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n For \u201cFlow,\u201d the filmmaker established his animation company, Dream Well Studio<\/a>, out of necessity after a partnership with another company fell through. \u201cHad I known that we would have to start our own studio, I wouldn\u2019t have done it,\u201d Zilbalodis said. \u201cIt\u2019s good that the circumstance forced me to figure things out.\u201d<\/p>\n The transition from working alone to managing a team of collaborators proved challenging.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I was working alone I just had an idea and did it,\u201d he said. \u201cThis time these ideas were questioned, which can be great because they have more intention to be in the film.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The \u201cFlow\u201d craze has reached far beyond Latvia. Here in the United States, the animated adventure, which opened in theaters in late November, has become the all-time highest-grossing release<\/a> for the distributors Janus Films and Sideshow, bringing in $4 million so far.<\/p>\n Zilbalodis is particularly surprised by the reception in Mexico, where the film opened on 800 screens \u2014 more than in any other country \u2014 on Jan. 1. \u201cThere\u2019s real appetite for films like this, that gives me a lot of hope,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The filmmaker is also hoping that the success of \u201cFlow\u201d will encourage the government of Latvia, and those in other countries, to fund unconventional films more generously, not as charity, but as profitable, relatively low-risk investments that could potentially help boost tourism. \u201cPeople around the world who might not have heard about Latvia will now have heard about it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n