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1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFlow won Best Animated Feature Film at the 97th Academy Awards on March 2, 2025, becoming the first Latvian film to win an Oscar. The dialogue-free animated feature also made history as the first Latvian film nominated for an Academy Award, with nominations in both animated and international feature categories.
What did Flow win at the 2025 Oscars?
The Academy honored Flow with the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film. Director Gints Zilbalodis shared the award with producers Matīss Kaža, Ron Dyens and Gregory Zalcman. The film was also nominated for Best International Feature Film, as Latvia’s National Film Centre noted in its account of the milestone: National Film Centre of Latvia.
Why was the win historic for Latvia?
Latvia’s Ministry of Culture and Eurimages described the victory as the country’s first Oscar or Academy Award. The National Film Centre separately identified Flow as the first Latvian film ever nominated for an Academy Award. Its two nominations marked a breakthrough for Latvian filmmaking on the Academy stage. The Ministry also called Flow the first independent film to win Best Animated Feature; that is the Ministry’s characterization, rather than a separately audited Academy statistic.
The win was shared across an international production. Flow was made as a Latvia-France-Belgium co-production by Dream Well Studio, Sacrebleu Productions and Take Five. Latvia’s Ministry of Culture credits support from the National Film Centre of Latvia, the State Culture Capital Foundation and Eurimages, alongside French and Belgian regional programmes and French organizations including the national film centre, Arte and Canal+: Latvia’s Ministry of Culture.
#1 Best Overall
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What is Flow about?
Directed by Latvian filmmaker Gints Zilbalodis, Flow is an animated feature without dialogue. Its story follows a cat and other animals trying to survive a catastrophic flood. The Associated Press reported that the film was made using Blender, a free, open-source graphics software tool; the film’s win is not an endorsement of that product. AP also covered Zilbalodis’s explanation of the expressive choices behind the film: “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.” Associated Press.
How did Flow build momentum before the Oscars?
The film premiered at Cannes in May 2024 and was selected for Un Certain Regard. Before its Oscar win, it had also received the Golden Globe for animated feature, multiple awards at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, the European Film Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and the César for Best Animated Film. Latvia’s Ministry of Culture and the National Film Centre documented its award run and Cannes selection.
Rank #2
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Its audience and release figures illustrate the scale of its reach, but they are snapshots from different dates and use different measures. The National Film Centre’s February 28, 2025 report said Flow had been scheduled or was showing in 45 countries, reported a budget of €3.5 million, and counted more than 320,000 cinema-goers in Latvia. Riga Municipality’s March 6, 2025 report later put Latvian cinema attendance above 330,000 and worldwide viewers above 3 million, and reported more than 70 international awards. These are dated institutional reports, not current audited totals; the figures should not be combined. National Film Centre of Latvia; Riga Municipality.
At a welcome event for the crew in Riga, producer Matīss Kaža said: “The success of Flow is not just a success on a Latvian scale; it is a great success for all independent animation.”
Quick Recap
Best Value
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Rank #4
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