FLOW Director Teaser: Gints Zilbalodis’ Oscar-Nominated Tour de Force Is Now Streaming on Max

Flow has now come home.

Gints Zilbalodis’ double Oscar nominee for Best Animated Film and Best International Feature Film is now streaming on Max, following an ongoing theatrical run and ahead of its eventual 4K Criterion Collection release. This bold, dialogue-less animated feature is set in a world overcome by an apocalyptic flood. A band of animals, including a cat, a dog, a capybara, and a ring-tailed lemur, attempt to navigate this new world – to survive through something they have never experienced before.

The film has come a long way since its Cannes premiere last year and multiple Annecy wins. It also took home the Golden Globe earlier this year for Animated Feature and is Latvia’s first film nominated for the Best International Feature Oscar.

In his review, lead critic Christopher Reed said “Latvian director Gints Zilbalodis (Away) crafts a beautifully animated fable with his sophomore effort, Flow, in which we follow a ragtag group of animals navigating a massive flood. With more than a few Biblical allusions, the movie embarks on a journey through not only rising waters but complex interspecies relationships. No people may be in sight—beyond their abandoned artifacts—but Flow nevertheless serves as an allegory for the human world and the virtues of altruism… Flow is a lovely and thought-provoking meditation on life in all its glory and regret. Slip into the stream and let the current carry you away. Within the disquieting whirlpool swirl rivers of grandeur and truth.”

Reed also sat down with Zilbadonis back in December about the making of the film. “I guess all the films I’ve done are without dialogue,” he said. “I’ve been asked if it’s a big challenge doing that, but actually I think for me it’s easier. Using dialogue would be a greater challenge, but that’s also something I would like to do sometime. But for now, I feel more comfortable expressing myself visually. When there’s no dialogue, I have more freedom in other ways.”

He added, “I wanted this world to feel kind of timeless so that it could basically be set at any time, and hopefully that will make it feel fresher in the future, as well. Being able to make our own world allowed me to have more freedom with what kinds of places we were able to build. All that is part of the storytelling.”

Watch the new trailer below, featuring high praise from filmmakers like Wes Anderson, Richard Linklater, Alexander Payne, Guillermo del Toro, Barry Jenkins, Benny Safdie, Sian Heder, and more. Stream the full movie now on Max.

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