Flow, a wordless cat parable that became the first Latvian film to win an Academy Award, prompted a sleepless night for the scores of Latvians celebrating the historic accolade. 

The film won the Oscar for animated feature at Sunday’s 97th Academy Awards in Los Angeles, which aired starting at 2 a.m. Monday for Latvians watching from their homes. Made with open-source software and a budget of less than $4 million US, Flow nabbed the top prize in an upset over big-budget films such as DreamWorks Animations’ The Wild Robot, and Disney and Pixar’s box office smash, Inside Out 2.

After thanking his cats and dogs — one of which served as the model for a character in the film — during his acceptance speech, filmmaker Gints Zilbalodis acknowledged the momentous nature of his win.

“I’m really moved by the warm reception our film has had. I hope this will open doors to independent animation filmmakers around the world,” Zilbalodis told the Los Angeles audience. “This is the first time a film from Latvia has ever been nominated. So it really means a lot to us.”

The film — called “Straume” in Latvian — has been praised for using Blender, a free, open-source animation software that can run on most laptops, to create the feature-length film. The result is a dreamy aesthetic paired with a peaceful, yet post-apocalyptic, fable about a black cat, dog, capybara, ring-tailed lemur and secretary bird trying to survive a catastrophic flood.

The film has no dialogue, using its visuals and music alone to pull viewers into the unlikely relationship and understanding between the species trying to escape the rising waters.

“I think you can express a lot more without words. Some of these emotions and ideas I couldn’t articulate with words but with music, sound, movement and editing, I can say a lot more,” said Zilbalodis backstage. “Those are my favourite kinds of films and favourite scenes and are very cinematic and transcend cultural boundaries.”

‘Great and historic day for Latvia’

The Oscar statuette is the latest source of hometown pride for the Baltic country of nearly 1.9 million people who have embraced Flow in droves since the world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2024. The National Film Centre of Latvia, which was one of the backers of the film, called the film “an unprecedented phenomenon in the history of Latvian cinema.”

More than 320,000 people have watched it in theatres across Latvia, an audience larger than any other film screened in the country in the last 30 years, according to the centre. And more than 15,000 people over 10 days visited the Latvian National Museum of Art to see the film’s Golden Globe Award — also Latvia’s first — on public display in January.

To honour the film, Latvia released a special stamp commemorating it, days before the Oscars ceremony.

In the centre of the capital, an art installation set up in February still spells out “RIGA” with Flow‘s central black cat perched atop the “A” to ensure Latvians and tourists alike — including Latvian President Edgars Rinkēvičs, who snapped a photo with it Monday — can pose with the famous feline. 

“This is a great and historic day for Latvia!” Rinkēvičs wrote in a post on X celebrating the win. “And we will all need time to understand what happened, because something big and beautiful occurred!” 

Prime Minister Evika Siliņa, in her congratulations on X to the filmmakers, added, “the cat continues to capture the hearts of people worldwide!”

Flow is only Zilbalodis’ second animated film as a director. He was the sole animator on his first feature film, 2019’s Away. 

The win Sunday adds to an already impressive resumé for the director, which includes a best animated feature win at the Golden Globe Awards, the top prize at the Ottawa International Animation Festival, and nominations from Critics Choice Awards, Annie Awards and British Academy Film Awards.

The success of the film is shared with producers Matīss Kaža, Ron Dyens and Gregory Zalcman. The Latvian, French and Belgian co-production was also nominated for Best International Feature Film at the Academy Awards, but lost to Brazil’s I Am Still Here.

The team celebrated their win in style following the ceremony. In an Instagram post, Zilbalodis shared photos of himself at an In-N-Out, still decked out in his suit, a burger in hand and his award sitting on the table.