Following a flood, a courageous black cat is forced to leave their home and take refuge on a boat in search of dry land with some unlikely companions in Flow (2024), one of our new favourite animated films. This heart-warming story told through the eyes of a black kitty captivated audiences and critics, securing several esteemed awards including Best Animated Feature at the 2025 Oscars. In this review we explore what makes this animation so special and how this little black cat will steal your heart.
© Dream Well Studio, Sacrebleu Productions, Take Five, Charades
Set in a post-human world, a black cat forms an unconventional bond with some charming animal characters and has to learn to collaborate and overcome their differences in order to survive. It’s a timely message brought to life with innovative animation that’s irresistible to watch - even if we are biased as feline fans! This touching story feels warmly immersive (without relying on any dialogue at all) and is packed with moments of joy, despair and danger. If you’ve ever wondered what the world might feel like from a cat's perspective, Flow is a must-watch. Director Gints Zilbalodis said he wanted to create an experience where you feel like you are the cat, which is skilfully achieved with the use of perspective. With animals acting like animals, this unique story, despite no dialogue, will connect with any animal lover.
© Dream Well Studio, Sacrebleu Productions, Take Five, Charades
Not only is this a beautiful story, but Flow also broke many records. It was the first Latvian film to be nominated at the Oscars and the Golden Globes and the first film from Latvia to win. Zilbalodis thanked his cats and dogs in his Oscar's acceptance speech. The award statues were placed in Latvia’s National Museum of Art, bringing hour-long queues of locals to see the awards in the flesh. Flow is the first independent animation to win Best Animated Feature at the Oscars and was made using the free animation software, Blender, and with a budget of only $3 million (for comparison, fellow Best Animated Feature nominee, Pixar’s Inside Out 2 (2024), had a budget of $200 million). Driving home the message that independent and small-budget animation can be just as breath-taking as mainstream Hollywood animated films and we hope Flow’s success will pave the way to an exciting future for animation artists.
Flow not only has been popular with cat people but also with cats themselves! There are countless videos online of cats watching along and reacting to Flow, as Zilbalodis says in his Instagram post, cinema is the universal language!
Cat charities and adoption centres regularly report that black cats can be overlooked in favour of other coat colours, which means they often take longer to rehome. We hope that the success and popularity of Flow will change this by showing the world just how special black cats are.
Have you watched Flow? We'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
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