‘Flow’s’ Shock Golden Globe Win Is a Long Overdue Triumph for Indie Animation

variety.com:

Jamie Lang In a major upset, Latvian director Gints Zilbalodis‘ “Flow” won the Golden Globe for best animated feature on Sunday evening.

A co-production between Latvia, Belgium, and France with a modest $3.7 million budget, “Flow” made waves simply by earning a nomination in a category traditionally dominated by big-budget studio films.

While it’s handled by Sideshow and Janus Films whose track record includes the Oscar-winning “Drive My Car,” “Flow” faced an uphill battle in the Golden Globe race, competing against two Disney/Pixar blockbusters (“Inside Out 2” and “Moana 2”), a DreamWorks feature by animation legend Chris Sanders (“The Wild Robot”), a big-budget Netflix production from Oscar-winning Aardman Animations (“Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl”) and Oscar-winning director Adam Elliot’s “Memoirs of a Snail.” In the film, a biblical flood has submerged everything in its path, including Cat’s home.

There are no humans to be found anywhere, although their material legacy remains. Luckily for “the “Flow’s” feline protagonist, it finds refuge on a boat full of other presumably homeless animals.