Yesterday, on January 5, the Golden Globes were presented in Los Angeles, where director Gints Zilbalodis’ Flow won a historic victory, taking home the award for Best Animated Motion Picture. This is the first time a film from Latvia has won or been nominated for the prestigious award.
«This film is made by a very small, young but passionate team in a place where there isn’t a big film industry. This is the first time that a film from Latvia has been here, so this is huge for us,» said Zilbalodis upon receiving the award. «This is a very personal story for me, because I used to work alone. I made all my films myself but this time I worked with a team and just like the cat in Flow, I had to learn how to trust others, how to collaborate, how to overcome our differences and I think its very important to remember this nowadays, more than ever. Thank you for embracing our little cat film!» thanked the director.
The winners of the Golden Globe Awards are selected by foreign press journalists accredited in Hollywood, and this year marked the 82nd edition of the awards. More than 300 journalists from around 80 countries voted for the 2024 films from around the world.
Director Gints Zilbalodis considers the Golden Globe Award a major milestone in the already incredibly successful journey of Flow around the world — in the cinemas of many countries and in the international awards season, which will continue throughout January and February leading up to the Academy Awards ceremony in early March. The next important dates are less than a week away: Flow is nominated for two Critics’ Choice Awards, which will be revealed on the night of January 12, while the nominations for the British Academy Film Awards, or BAFTAs, will be announced on January 15 (we already know that Flow has been longlisted in three categories). On January 17, the Oscar nominations will be announced (Flow is shortlisted for the Best International Feature Film and the Best Animated Feature Film at the Academy Awards).
Flow has already won the Best Animated Feature at the European Film Awards, as well as a number of awards at festivals and from various US film critics’ associations. Meanwhile, in Latvia too, the film’s global fame is having an impact on cinema attendance — Flow has been in cinemas for 18 weeks and has been seen by more than 174,000 cinema-goers in Latvia.
Film Flow is supported by the National Film Centre, the State Culture Capital Foundation of Latvia, Eurimages, the French National Film Centre, Arte, and Canal+, as well as by various regional foundations and support programmes in France and Belgium. The film is a three-country co-production between Dream Well Studio (Latvia), Sacrebleu Productions (France), and Take Five (Belgium).
Viedokļi