On Tuesday, December 17, the U.S. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced "shortlists" of Oscar nominees in ten categories, and “Flow” by Gints Zilbalodis has been named among 15 films in the "International Feature Film" category. It is the first Latvian film to ever enter the list of the best foreign films in the "Oscars" award competition.
Latvia has been submitting film for the respective category since year 2010, this is the 16th time submitting the film and first time to reaching the shortlist. This year, films from 85 countries were submitted for the competition.
Film is also eligible for the Best Feature-Length Animated Film category, but for this category the short list is not announced in advance, on January 17, the films nominated for the award will be revealed.
It has already been reported that director’s Gints Zilbalodis and producer’s Matīss Kaža film “Flow” is experiencing an incredible triumphal march in this autumn and winter awards season, which would be surprising even for the productions of cinematic superpowers, not only for a film from small Latvia (and co-produced with French and Belgian studios). To date, “Flow” has already won more than 40 awards at international festivals and nominations for various major film industry awards, including the European Film Academy Award for Best Animated Film of the Year, a nomination for the Golden Globes Award and several more awards from the US Film Critics' Associations; film has also been nominated for the prestigious European Parliament's LUX Audience Award, open to audience vote across Europe, where film has already entered the repertoire of cinemas in France, Sweden, Iceland, Italy and Switzerland, and other countries will soon follow. Meanwhile, along with its widespread screening in U.S. cinemas, the film has also earned dazzling reviews in major U.S. newspapers and has been named by nine different associations of professional film critics in the U.S. as the best animated film of the year.
In Latvia, film has been in the cinema repertoire for 16 weeks and the number of viewers of the film has already exceeded 145 000.
Film is financially supported by the National Film Centre of Latvia, the State Culture Capital Foundation, Eurimages, the French National Film Centre, television Arte and Canal+, as well as various regional funds and support programmes in France and Belgium. The film was created as a co-production of three countries - Dream Well Studio (Latvia), Sacrebleu Productions (France) and Take Five (Belgium).
More information: Matīss Kaža | producer | matiss@dreamwell.lv