The critically acclaimed animated feature "Flow," which had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival and was selected as Latvia's official submission for the Oscar for Best International Feature Film, is scheduled for an awards season release in the U.S. The film will premiere in New York and Los Angeles on November 22, with a national release in the following weeks via Janus Films and Sideshow.
Flow, Oscar contender for animated feature and winner of Annecy, gets fall release date
Directed by Gints Zilbalodis, “Flow” tells the story of a courageous cat whose home is destroyed by a catastrophic flood. Along with a capybara, a lemur, a bird and a dog, the cat embarks on a perilous journey by boat in search of dry land. Together, the unlikely group must have faith and courage to brave the dangers of their new watery world.
Janus Films and Sideshow are behind the Oscar-nominated “EO,” “All That Breathes” and “Drive My Car” – the latter also nabbed a Best Picture nomination and won international feature film. “Flow” is getting a significant promotional push, and if it’s nominated for both international feature film and animated feature, it would follow in the footsteps of the acclaimed “Flee” (2021), which also secured a nomination for documentary film. “Flow” isn’t the only animated film looking to make history this year, though; Focus Features’ “Piece by Piece,” a Lego-style documentary about the life of Pharrell Williams, is also vying for recognition in both the doc and animation categories.
The silent animated film screened in Cannes in May in the Un Certain Regard section and won four awards at the Annecy Film Festival in June: the Audience Award, the Jury Prize, the Special Prize for Original Score and the Gan Foundation Award for Distribution. "Flow" currently has a perfect 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Peter Debruge, chief film critic for Variety, calls the film "hypnotic" and "radically different from the look or feel of other animated features (yet oddly video game-like in its design)."
