Oscars 2025: Foreign films ‘Flow’, ‘In the Shadow of the Cypress’ win animation awards, beat out Hollywood -OxBig News Network

Gints Zilbalodis, Matiss Kaza, Ron Dyens and Gregory Zalcman win the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film for “Flow” during the Oscars show at the 97th Academy Awards in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, U.S., March 2, 2025.

Latvian animation film Flow has won the Oscars for Best Animated Feature at the 97th Academy Awards. The film, a delightful, wordless odyssey of a black cat, beat out more mainstream contenders like Inside Out 2 and The Wild Robot in its category. In the Shadow of the Cypress, an Iranian animation short, also won an Oscar, scripting a dual victory for foreign language titles in a genre dominated by effects-heavy Hollywood productions.

Directed by Gints Zilbalodis, best known for the 2019 feature Away, Flow was created using the open-source animation software Blender. It had earlier won the Golden Globe for Best Animation in January, and is also the highest-selling film in Latvian theatres. The film was premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.

In its review of Flow, The Hindu wrote: “Right off the bat, what catches your eye as you get into the world of Flow is how simple yet elegant the style and design are. At a time when animated films try to look as realistic as possible, or push the boundaries of filmmaking using techniques like stop-motion, Flow, quite literally, takes the genre back to its drawing board.”

The Flow team also transformed its smaller budget into a nominee for the best international film Oscar, achieving rare recognition for an animated film in two major categories and making history with the first Oscar nominations for the Northern European country ever

The 97th Academy Awards are currently underway at the Dolby Theatre in LA. TV host and comedian is master of ceremonies for the first time.

(with reuters inputs)