For a long time, it felt like Disney was destined to walk away with Best Animated Feature at the Oscars out of sheer routine. It had become clear that The Academy didn’t take animation seriously as a medium, freezing out potential nominees and deserving winners as it went for the easy option again and again and again. Now, it seems that the landscape is changing.
This past weekend saw independent film Flow beat out the likes of Inside Out 2, Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, and The Wild Robot to take home the prize. All major movies with several million dollar budgets and studio backing behind them, while Flow cost only $3.5 million to produce and was made in Blender, a free piece of software accessible to everyone.
Flow is the first Latvian film in history to win an Oscar.
The Best Animated Feature Oscar Is No Longer Disney’s To Take
After picking up the Golden Globe during awards season, there was a belief that Flow was poised to go the distance. But even the most hardened of animation pundits expected Inside Out 2 to walk away with the win. It was a hit for Pixar, and in the past that has been ample justification for the Academy to hand over the gold. But things have changed, and after being barraged for failing to respect the medium and high-profile figures like Hayao Miyazaki and Guillermo del Toro walking away with the accolade in recent years, this new direction could soon become The Oscars’ status quo.
Since the Best Animated Feature category was first introduced back in 2001, Disney has won 15 years out of 25, and its current three-year streak of losses is its longest ever. Many of those films were deserving winners, such as Up, Frozen, and The Incredibles, while others were simply the most recognisable, so the jury was bound to pick the easiest option out of simultaneous ignorance and routine. Time was not taken to consider animated films from Asia or Europe, deciding instead to focus on the big box office hitters while foregoing the importance of quality.
In recent years, this has thankfully begun to change, with movies like Mirai, Robot Dreams, The Breadwinner, and many others helping to create a more comprehensive, global idea of what feature-length animation is capable of. Ne Zha 2 just eclipsed Disney’s box office record for an animated movie. But even then, this disrespect continued to be a source of frustration behind the scenes.
Animation is frequently holding up the box office as it lines the pockets of executives, but the workers who make these films possible aren’t ever given the benefits or recognition they deserve. You shouldn’t celebrate their victory at a huge event like this without acknowledging those who made it possible, but again and again we’ve seen this happen. Flow changes that, and feels like a monumental shift in the landscape of indie animation that has been a long, long time coming.
Flow Is The Sort Of Film That Disney Should Be Making
The magical thing about Flow is the simplicity of its premise. It follows a black cat trying to survive alongside other animals in a seemingly post-apocalyptic world where human life is left in tatters. We follow our silent feline protagonist – all the animals use real, recorded animal noises (except the capybara, who was dubbed by a baby camel due to capybaras being too quiet) – as they travel the world alongside other animals in an attempt to stay alive and find a purpose.
It’s a wonderfully animated gem that took Latvian director Gints Zilbalodis five and a half years to make, and since its release has broken box office records, attracted critical acclaim, and become the poster child for Blender.
It’s a homegrown success that speaks to the beauty of animation being a medium which is open to anyone and everyone, and you don’t need studio backing to create something that resonates with audiences across the globe through both its visuals and simplicity.
Disney is now operating in a tried-and-true cinematic landscape of reliable franchises and sequels as everything it makes leaves behind the progressive messages it once used it champion, so it leaves indie animation to pick up the pieces and engage with audiences on a level that never takes them for a ride or tries to obscure the truth from them. Those are the sorts of films and shows I want to see, and time and time again it’s been made clear corporations will not give them to us.
Flow is the sort of winner that Best Animated Feature has been waiting for, and to watch as its success is celebrated by industry veterans and general audiences alike showcases how the medium it calls home is slowly shifting and changing in the favour of its creators.