Step aside Disney animals, a small indie cat is here to take over. Welcome back to the Midweek Movie Marathon, where this week I’ll be talking about the recent Academy Award winner: “Flow”. 

The past few years have been rocky for Disney with new releases falling flat and creativity dwindling, but in the wake of the falling empire, small independent animation studios are on the rise. Last year saw “The Boy and the Heron” win best animated feature at the Academy Awards and this year the Latvian film “Flow” won.

This is the first movie from Latvia to win any major film award, and it was all done using Blender, an free open source website for animation. Flow follows the story of Cat who’s home is flooded making Cat embark on a journey to higher ground in a boat with a Capybara, Lemur, Dog and Stork. None of these animals are anthropomorphized, meaning that they don’t have names and don’t speak. While this may make the film seem bland, it is a thrilling adventure that is visually beautiful and occasionally heart wrenching.

“Flow” is a fantastic film for all ages and is as adorable as it is action packed.  “Flow’s” momentous win also gave hope for foreign independent films with little budget to win international accolades. In an era of increasing monopolies in the film industry, it is still nice to know that passionate people are getting the recognition they deserve.