Flow

AroView: A nameless, wordless cat survives an apocalyptic flood and forms a kinship with a dog, a capybara, a lemur and a bird in a lush, animated fantasia that has become the all-time box-office champ in its native Latvia and also won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2025.

Like last year’s “Robot Dreams”, it’s a film of pure visual storytelling, only with the animals behaving true to the nature of their species and yet double as avatars for human personality types or nationalities trying to find common ground. Animated using open-source software in the hands of director Gints Zilbalodis, it’s a testament to the democratized tools of technology with an against-the-odds creation story as endearing as the story it tells.

“There are no human characters in Flow and no dialogue beyond barks and squawks but the sense of peril is compelling, the visuals are impressive and the emotional spell it casts is captivating.” ~Allan Hunter, Screen Daily

“The animals act like real animals, not like cartoons or humans, and that restraint gives their adventure an authenticity that, in moments of both delight and peril, makes the emotion that much more powerful. With the caveat that I’m a cat lover, I was deeply moved.” ~Calum Marsh, The New York Times

“Flow might be a digital confection, but it’s also open, alive, elemental. In every sense, it’s a breath of fresh air.” ~Robbie Collin, The Telegraph