On the night of January 6 (Latvian time), Golden Globes award ceremony took place in Los Angeles (USA), and "Flow" by Gints Zilbalodis received the award as the “Best Motion Picture Animated”, becoming the first Latvian film to ever earn a Golden Globes nomination and also be awarded.
The Golden Globes awards are given by foreign press journalists accredited in Hollywood, this year the awards were presented for the 82nd time. More than 300 journalists from about 80 countries took part in the voting process. The competitors of the Flow in the category “Best Motion Picture Animated” were Hollywood's big-budget projects - Inside Out 2, The Wild Robot and Moana 2, the Australian film Memoir of a Snail and film Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl from the legendary British studio Aardman Animations.
A list of all films and professionals nominated for the Golden Globes Awards, highlighting the winners, can be found here: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/golden-globes-winners-2025-list/
The award was presented to the director Gints Zilbalodis, joined on the stage by producers Matīss Kaža (Latvia) and Ron Dyens (France), by legendary actor Harrison Ford. Gints Zilbalodis said in his acceptance speech: "This film has been made by a very small and young but passionate team in a country where film industry is not large; this is the first time a film from Latvia is here, and this is a huge achievement for us. It's a very personal story, because in the past I made all my films alone, but this time I worked with the team, and like Cat in the Flow, I had to learn to trust others, collaborate and overcome disagreements. I think it's more important than ever to remember this these days. Thank you so much for appreciating our little cat movie."
"This is a huge recognition of the small industry of a small country and the talented authors who have been able to create a miracle in this modest reality. If someone were to say in May that this film would make it to America, and not just to various critics' awards, but would be nominated and receive a Golden Globe, he would be told that the person does not understand what he is talking about. However, miracles happen," commented Dita Rietuma, head of the National Film Center of Latvia.
Director Gints Zilbalodis admits that the Golden Globes Award is a major turning point in the already incredibly successful journey of the film around the world – both in cinemas in many countries and during the international awards season, which will continue throughout January and February, right up to the Oscars awards ceremony in early March. The closest significant dates are expected in less than a week – Flow has been nominated for two Critic's Choice awards, the winners of which are expected to be announced in the night of January 12 Latvian time, after which the British Film Academy Awards or BAFTA nominations will be announced on January 15 (it is already known that Flow has entered the long lists of the awards in three categories), and on January 17 Oscars nominations will be releveled (Flow included in the "short list" of the U.S. Academy Awards in the category of international awards and in the list of applicants for the Best Feature Animated Film Award).
The film has already received the European Film Academy Award as Europe's best animated film of the year, including a number of awards at festivals and from various US film critics' associations. In Latvian cinemas film has been now screened for 18 weeks and gathered more than 174 000 admissions.
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