‘Flow’ Director Gints Zilbalodis Sets Adventure Adrift in an Animal Waterworld

This article was written for the September/October '24 issue of Animation Magazine (No. 343).

Five years ago, Latvian animator and director Gints Zilbalodis dazzled the world with his first animated feature project, Away, a beautiful work that he wrote, directed, animated and scored. The self-taught animation whiz, who created his first Flash-animated short when he was only eight years old, has outdone himself with his sophomore effort. Flow is a sweeping cinematic experience that follows a loner cat trying to survive in a flooded planet with the aid of some of his animal friends.

The dialog-free film was universally praised when it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival (in the Un Certain Regard sidebar) and at Annecy in June, where it won the Jury and Audience Awards for best feature, Best Original Music and the Gan Foundation Distribution Award. We recently caught up with the director to find out more about his labor of love, which is sure to become an awards-season favorite in the next few months.

Gints Zilbalodis: I guess it all started with the short film I made many years ago, which was about a cat who was afraid of water. For the feature, I wanted to focus more on a group: It’s not just a cat, it’s a bunch of other animals. I guess it was intentional to come up with a story that reflected my own experience of working with a group for the first time and facing your fears. The cat in the movie is also somewhat afraid of other animals. I also knew there’d be no dialog in the film, and I wanted to tell a story with just animals who also behave like animals. That meant I could be more expressive with the other tools — the camera, the animation, the sound and music. It was good to have these limitations as it helps you figure out the narrative without dialogue.

You began work on the film in 2019. How did you go about putting your team together after working solo for your first movie?

It’s been over five years — which is a long time, but not too long for a feature. That includes writing all the scripts and the funding and development work. We did everything except the character animation in Latvia, which was done in France and Belgium. The preproduction, music, animatic character designs, effects and lighting were all done in Latvia by the studio I founded for this movie, called Dream Well Studio. The film’s animation was produced in France by Sacrebleu and in Belgium by Take Five. Overall, I would say about 40 to 50 people worked on the movie, but not all of them worked on it all the time. Some worked on it for only a few weeks.

What was it like for you to oversee this team and work with other experts after your first movie, which was made by you alone?

Some things were easier and some were more difficult when you have a bigger team because the movie is a lot more ambitious and bigger than my first film, which had very few characters and a slower pace. It also had a much simpler look. In Flow, we had many more characters and a lot of water, which is very complicated to animate. It would be impossible to do this movie alone, so I had make a plan and make sure that everyone was on the same page. I know that our process was different from your typical animation studio’s. Our film felt very independent; I was really open to everyone’s idea … Sometimes the animators would suggest to do something differently, and I would adjust the camera to make a scene work better. The core of the team was perhaps only four or five people, including me. We had a small budget — about 3.5 million euros, or about $4 million — so we had to figure out the best way to use our resources. Luckily, everyone on the team was very passionate about the movie, and they were all really invested in it.

Away was created in Maya. Which tools did you use to make Flow?

We did the whole thing in Blender, which is a real-time render engine similar to Unreal. It allowed us to work a lot faster and helped me experimenting with the lighting of the scenes. It’s great because you don’t have to wait for a long time for the renders: I could just play around and see if something works or not. We didn’t use any storyboards, and I did all the animatics myself in 3D using Blender. I could plan out the camera shots, as the camera plays a big role in the movie and it’s moving in and in depth, and we have these long takes. The scenes had a very complicated choreography and would be impossible to draw as storyboards. It almost brought an improvisational aspect to the animatic phase. I could block the scenes and try different cameras, check to see if a wide angle would work, etc. It also impacted the editing and made the process closer to working on a live-action or documentary film, where you have lots of footage and then you can pick and choose the right angle. Then, when you have figured it all out, you can go back and polish the camerawork so that you can pick the best angle for a shot.

What were some of the animated or live-action films or TV shows that inspired you early on?

I have a lot of influences, not just from animation but a wide variety of sources. In terms of animation, it’s Studio Ghibli. I find it so interesting that Hayao Miyazaki starts production even before the storyboards are finished. They kind of figure things out during production. For us, it was important not to waste any time or resources, so there are not deleted scenes or unused animation. However, our process was quite organic.

I also love the way filmmakers like Paul Thomas Anderson, Alfonso Cuarón and Martin Scorsese use the camera to be more expressive. For our movie, we wanted it to feel as if there’s a real camera person capturing how these animals are interacting with the world around them. It was important to create a sense of immersion with long takes. You can get very close to the characters and almost feel like you are the cat, in a way.

You address the real dangers our planet is facing in terms of climate change in your movie. What would you like audiences to take away from the film?

The whole backdrop of the movie is a massive flood and climate change, and that is relevant to the issues we are facing. But I think it’s also quite universal because it’s really more about the characters and how they interact with each other. They either support each other or fight, but they have to find a way to work together despite their differences. Our cat is running away from himself, and he has all these fears and insecurities. But he has to accept himself and learn how to live with the other. That’s why I feel the movie is quite personal to me. Even when you make something that is quite universal, you need to have this personal aspect and connection to the story. I feel that’s what people will connect with, even if they don’t care about animals or the story!

And of course, we have to mention that you composed the film’s music, too!

I never studied music, and the first time I did the music for anything was for my first movie, Away. It was very basic and I created it on my computer with some samples. It was quite minimalistic and used repeated patterns and layers. For Flow, I tried to do it myself, but I soon realized that I needed some help (which is very appropriate for the theme of the movie!). So we brought in a professional musician who has written many like scores and performed in orchestras. We needed music early on: I created themes and sketches before the script was finished. It helped me figure out the story. This way, you don’t have to use temp music as you’re editing. You have original music as you’re creating the animatic. Then, we brought in composer Rihards Zalupe, who fine-tuned everything and made sure themes really developed throughout the film. It was really amazing that we had like a full orchestra who recorded everything. When you see the movie in a theater, you can really sense the difference.

Finally, we get to the most important question: Are you a cat or a dog person?

I used to have a cat, but that was quite a while ago when I made my short film about a cat. But currently, I have a dog and that’s a different experience: I do enjoy the company of dogs, but I am more like a cat as I like to do what I want to do and don’t like to follow any orders!

Janus Films and Sideshow will release Flow in North America on November 22. The movie is also screening in competition at the Ottawa International Animation Festival in September.