News

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has invited hundreds of artists and executives to join the organization!

Wicked star Ariana Grande, Dune‘s Jason Momoa and girlfriend, Hit Man star Adria Arjona, Superman‘s Rachel Brosnahan and Anora breakout Mikey Madison are among the actors who have “distinguished themselves by their contributions to motion pictures.”

“We are thrilled to invite this esteemed class of artists, technologists, and professionals to join the Academy,” Academy CEO Bill Kramer and Academy President Janet Yang shared in a statement. “Through their commitment to filmmaking and to the greater movie industry, these exceptionally talented individuals have made indelible contributions to our global filmmaking community.”

Keep reading to see the full list of invitees…

According to the Academy website, “Membership selection is based on professional qualifications, with an ongoing commitment to representation, inclusion and equity remaining a priority. Of the 2025 invited class, 41% are women,...

Recent Oscar winners Kieran Culkin and Mikey Madison, along with nominees Ariana Grande, Fernanda Torres, Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong, are among the 534 distinguished artists and executives invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

These individuals have been recognized for their exceptional contributions to the art and science of filmmaking, representing a diverse spectrum of talent, perspectives and geographic backgrounds.

If all invitees accept, the Academy’s total membership will rise to 11,120, including 10,143 voting members. Invitees hail from 60 countries and territories outside the United States, contributing to the Academy’s increasing international profile.

“We are thrilled to welcome this esteemed class of artists, technologists and professionals into the Academy,” said Academy CEO Bill Kramer and Academy president Janet Yang in a joint statement. “This year’s class embodies the diversity and global breadth of today’s film community, and their inclusion will continue to enrich the Academy’s mission and work.

2025 Academy Award winners Mikey Madison, Kieran Culkin and Lol Crawley and nominees Ariana Grande, Sebastian Stan and Brandi Carlile have been invited to become members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, as have other notables including incumbent Oscars host Conan O’Brien, his predecessor Jimmy Kimmel and their respective producers; top executives Tom Quinn of Neon, Jason Ropell of Mubi, Ravi Ahuja of Sony and Shannon Ryan of Disney; plus WME president Ari Greenburg, entertainment lawyer Nina Shaw and Christian Hodell, managing partner of the leading U.K. talent agency Hamilton Hodell.

The list of 534 invitees, released Thursday morning by the Academy, is the largest one issued since 2020, the last year of a half-decade stretch in which the organization recruited huge classes of unprecedented diversity, ranging in size from 683 to a record 928, as part of its response to the #OscarsSoWhite controversy of 2015 and 2016. Subsequent classes were smaller: 395 in...

Oscar has its new voters.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences handed out its annual invitations to membership today, with 534 new invitees. If all of them accept, the new overall membership would be 11,120, of which 10,143 would be eligible to vote for Oscars and run for governance elections.

Among those on the list are newly minted Oscar winners Mikey Madison (Best Actress for Anora) and Kieran Culkin. Among all the invitees this year 91 are past Oscar nominees including 26 winners. The prominent star names include Ariana Grande, Dave Bautista, Jodie Comer, Jason Momoa, Aubrey Plaza, Sebastian Stan, Jeremy Strong, Gillian Anderson, Stephen Graham, Andrew Scott, Danielle Deadwyler, and on and on.

The Academy said 41% of the new class are women, 45% belong to underrepresented communities and 55% are from 60 countries and territories outside the United States. If all accept, it would result in an overall AMPAS membership of 35% women,...

The Locarno Film Festival’s industry program Locarno Pro is launching the Locarno Investment Community, a new initiative designed to connect independent film financiers with the European film industry. Developed in collaboration with Oxbelly, a European nonprofit based in Greece that promotes collaboration between the U.S. and EU through its Ambassadors initiative, the new program aims to “foster meaningful engagement between investors, filmmakers, and industry professionals,

reinforcing Locarno Pro’s role as a hub for independent cinema.”

Providing a dedicated professional track within Locarno Pro, the inaugural edition of the

initiative will take place Aug. 7-10. It will integrate film financiers into key industry events and networking opportunities to give them access to the festival’s program and creatives.

“The Locarno Investment Community will welcome both seasoned funders looking to expand their reach within the European film landscape and newcomers eager to support independent cinema,” Locarno Pro organizers said.

After “Flow” became the first Latvian film to win an Academy Award, the crew received much more than a warm welcome back home. Producer Matiss Kaza told IndieWire that when the Latvian filmmakers returned from Los Angeles, they were treated like they had won not just Oscar but Olympic gold.

“There was a special event at the monument of freedom in the center of Riga to welcome [us],” Kaza said. “Thousands gathered despite the late hour. A couple of days later, the entire team visited the president of Latvia. The three major trophies received by Flow were on display at the National Museum of Art, where they were seen by more than 28,000 people. Now, the trophies are touring the smaller Latvian cities, such as Liepāja, Cēsis, and Rēzekne so that fans in [those] regions can also see them in person. The nation is extremely proud of the achievement, and it is a...

Exclusive: New York International Children’s Film Festival has announced its 2025 jury, including Lake Bell, Seth Meyers, Bob Odenkirk, Matthew Modine and Guillermo Martinez, Director and Head of Story at Sony Pictures Animation. Scroll down for the full jury.

The Festival, closing its 29th edition this weekend, is an Oscar-qualifying festival for short films. Nyicff’s 2024 jury award-winning film Magic Candies qualified through last year’s event and was nominated for a 2025 Academy Award. In addition to Magic Candies, Nyicff screened Oscar nominee Yuck as part of its 2024 slate.

Nyicff also presented a preview screening of Best Animated Feature winner Flow, followed by a Q&a with co-writer and producer Matīss Kaža, last November, as well as Oscar nominees Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (with Q&a with director Merlin Crossingham) and The Wild Robot (with Q&a with director Chris Sanders and lead Lupita Nyong’o) as part of its...

On Sunday night in Los Angeles, the comedy-drama Anora won the Academy Award for Best Picture. The film’s director, Sean Baker and co-producers Samantha Quan and Alex Coco accepted the award during the 97th Academy Awards.

“To all of the dreamers and young filmmakers out there, tell the stories you want to tell,” Quan said onstage after she, Baker and Coco accepted the award. “Tell the stories that move you. I promise you, you will never regret it.”

“I want to thank the Academy for recognizing a truly independent film,” the director shared. “This film was made on the blood, sweat and tears of incredible indie artists.”

Anora, a film about an exotic dancer marrying the wealthy son of a Russian oligarch, won five out of the six categories for which it was nominated, including Best Picture.

Baker also won the Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best Film Editing categories.

Conan O’Brien hosts the live ABC telecast of the 97th Oscars® at the Dolby® Theatre at Ovation Hollywood on Sunday, March 2, 2025.

The independent film made for $6 million won the top prize at the 97th Academy Awards. Winning five Oscars, Anora took home the gold for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Editing, Best Actress and Best Original Screenplay.

The 97th Oscars opened with a “We Love LA” movie montage followed by “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” sung by Ariana Grande and “Home” sung By Cynthia Erivo. The standing ovation was then met by the duo singing Wicked’s “Defying Gravity”. A true show-stopping opener to the 97th Academy Awards concluded with thunderous applause from the audience in the Dolby Theatre, as well as an eruption in the pressroom.

Host Conan O’Brien welcomed everyone to the telecast and Hollywood’s Biggest Night “at 4pm in the afternoon and let’s do this thing!

The 97th Academy Awards gave the Latvian animated film Flow the Oscar for Best Animated Feature. Directed, written, edited, and produced by Glints Zilbalodis, this dialogue-free movie has made history as the first film from Latvia to receive an Academy Award, undoubtedly a milestone for the country's film industry. Flow tells the story of a lone cat exploring a world devastated by a flood. Its wandering soon turns into a journey of survival on a boat, and they're slowly joined by other animals, forming unconventional friendships in an unforgettable and beautifully animated journey.

The movie, featuring a dog, capybara, lemur, and bird, stands out as an exciting Oscar winner due to its character-driven structure, which relies entirely on the animation and physicality of the animals without a single word of dialogue. This distinctive storytelling approach clearly resonated with Academy voters. What makes Flow's victory even more remarkable is the...

After a tense awards-season race for Best Animated Feature, Flow pulled ahead for the win at Sunday night’s 97th Oscars. With their win, Flow beat out Inside Out 2, Memoir of a Snail, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl and The Wild Robot.

Flow follows a cat, whose solitary lifestyle changes once their home is devastated by a great flood. The cat must learn to overcome its fear of both water and others to survive, finding safety with a group of animals from different species.

Related: Deadline’s Oscars Live Blog

Unsurprisingly, among the first in the list of thank you from director Gints Zilbalodis was to his cats and dogs before moving on to what the Oscar means for him and fellow winners Matīss Kaža, Ron Dyens and Gregory Zalcman. “I’m moved by the warm reception our win has had and I hope that it will open a...

Flow has just won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film. The movie's win is all the more remarkable considering its origins and how it was competing against big-budget animated features. This also marks a historic first, as it's the first time that a Latvian production has been nominated for, and won, an Academy Award.

Accepting the win for Flow were Gints Zilbalodis, Matīss Kaža, Ron Dyens, and Gregory Zalcman. The other nominees for the Best Animated Feature Film category included Inside Out 2 (Kelsey Mann and Mark Nielsen), Memoir of a Snail (Adam Elliot and Liz Kearney), Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, and The Wild Robot (Chris Sanders and Jeff Hermann).

Flow was designed with Blender, a free and open-source animation software. Flow was directed by Zilbalodis, who co-wrote the script with Kaža. The movie has been praised for its unique way of storytelling using only its visuals with no dialogue.

Everything you need to know about Flow and its release in India (Photo Credit – Instagram)

Flow has been making waves with its storytelling, visual appeal, and rave reviews since its release in May 2024. The animated film is directed by Gints Zilbalodis and co-written by Zilbalodis and Matīss Kaža.

This animated film follows a cat, dog, capybara, and ring-tailed lemur, and features no dialogue. These creatures try to survive in a world sans humans as the water level continues to rise around them. The film also shows a secretarybird, a dog, and a whale. Flow premiered on May 22, 2024, in the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival. It was then released in Latvia in August 2024.

The entire movie is made on the open-source and free software Blender. The inspiration for Flow comes from Zilbalodis’ previous short film Aqua which also features a cat. Zilbalodis began working on Flow in...

Max, the proprietary streamer for HBO and Discovery, has a ton of great films available to watch on the platform ... but right now, an animated movie without any dialogue is one of its most-watched movies.

Directed and conceived by Gints Zilbalodis, "Flow," an animated film that premiered at the Annecy Film Festival last summer and serves as a warning about the dangers of climate change, is an Oscar nominee for Best Animated Feature, and it's also one of the most popular movies on Max at the moment (per FlixPatrol). While people might be seeking out the computer-animated, dreamy, and sometimes surreal film thanks to its Oscar nod, they're probably pleasantly surprised by just how good it is. So, what is "Flow" (which Zilbalodis wrote alongside Matīss Kaža) about, and why doesn't it have any dialogue?

Well, the simple and relatively flip answer about the dialogue thing is that animals can't talk; obviously,...

The 2024 animated film Flow hit Max on Feb. 14, and in the few days since its debut, it has quickly climbed to the number one spot on the streaming service, beating out the Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield romance film We Live in Time, and older titles such as Central Intelligence and the first Final Destination movie. The film is a passion project for Gints Zilbalodis, who directed, produced, wrote, and edited the film. The multi-faceted creator made the film with a small animation team and used the open-source software Blender to bring the endearing animals to life, making the streaming success for the small film feel that much more significant.

Flow centers around a "courageous cat" whose home is completely engulfed in water after a massive flood, leaving the animal without a home. The unnamed cat disembarks on a journey to escape the ravaging waters and comes across a capybara,...

Ralph Fiennes stars as Cardinal Lawrence in director Edward Berger’s ‘Conclave’ (Credit: Courtesy of Focus Features. © 2024)

Conclave and The Brutalist tied with four wins at the 2025 Ee BAFTA Film Awards, announced on January 16th during a ceremony hosted by David Tennant. Anora, Dune: Part Two, Emilia Perez, A Real Pain, Wicked, and Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Foul each picked up two awards, and David Jonsson (Alien: Romulus) was the recipient of this year’s Ee Rising Star Award.

Adrien Brody, Mikey Madison, Zoe Saldaña, and Kieran Culkin took home their first BAFTA Film Awards wins. Warwick Davis was honored with the BAFTA Fellowship in recognition of “his work as an actor and for using his platform to challenge societal prejudice and champion self-empowerment, advocating that people with dwarfism can and do lead full and meaningful lives.”

BAFTA Awards 2025 Nominees and Winners

Best Film

Anora

The Brutalist

A Complete...

This evening saw the cream of the crop of thespian artists as well as filmmakers assemble at London’s Royal Festival Hall for this year’s BAFTA awards hosted by David Tennant.

This year’s nominations saw 12 nominations for ‘Conclave,’ 11 nominations for ‘Emilia Pérez,’ While ‘The Brutalist’ received 9 nominations. 7 nominations for ‘Anora,’ ‘Dune: Part Two’ and ‘Wicked.’

14 out of 24 nominees in the performance categories received their first BAFTA Film nomination, including Yura Borisov (Anora), Kieran Culkin (A Real Pain), Cynthia Erivo (Wicked), Karla Sofía Gascón (Emilia Pérez), Ariana Grande (Wicked), Selena Gomez (Emilia Pérez), Clarence Maclin (Sing Sing), Mikey Madison (Anora), Demi Moore (The Substance), Guy Pearce (The Brutalist), Isabella Rossellini (Conclave), Zoe Saldaña (Emilia Pérez), Sebastian Stan (The Apprentice) and Jeremy Strong (The Apprentice).

Also in news – The 2025 European Shooting Stars arrive at Berlinale

Winners are highlighted in bold.

Best Film

Anora The Brutalist A Complete Unknown Winner – Conclave...

The 2025 BAFTAs are here!

The annual celebration of film is taking place Sunday (February 16) at Royal Festival Hall in London, England. Doctor Who actor David Tennant is hosting for the second year in a row.

This year, Conclave scored the most nominations with 12 total. Emilia Pérez is in second place, with 11 nominations this year.

Just Jared will be live updating with all the winners throughout the event, so stay tuned!

Keep reading to find out more…

See the full list of nominees and winners…

Best Film

“Anora” — Alex Coco, Samantha Quan, Sean Baker

“The Brutalist”

“A Complete Unknown”

“Conclave” - Winner!

“Emilia Pérez”

Outstanding British Film

“Bird” — Andrea Arnold, Tessa Ross, Juliette Howell, Lee Groombridge

“Blitz” — Steve McQueen, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Anita Overland

“Conclave” — Edward Berger, Tessa Ross, Juliette Howell, Michael A. Jackman, Peter Straughan - Winner!

“Gladiator II” — Ridley Scott, Douglas Wick, Lucy Fisher, Michael Pruss, David Scarpa,...

“Conclave” won Best Film at the 2025 EE BAFTA Film Awards, leading the pack with four BAFTAs overall. The British equivalent of the Oscars took place February 16 from the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall in central London, honoring the best in film for its 78th annual edition.

Edward Berger’s “Conclave” led all films with 12 BAFTA nominations, and it won Best Film, Outstanding British Film, Best Adapted Screenplay for Peter Straughan, and Best Editing. It’s an upset after “Anora” swept all three of the DGAs, PGAs, and WGAs. The last film to win those three prizes, but not Best Picture at the Oscars was “Brokeback Mountain,” but then again, it did win the BAFTA for Best Film.

“Anora” did have a strong showing though, with Mikey Madison pulling off an upset and winning Leading Actress over Demi Moore for “The Substance.” “Anora” also won Best Casting, though Madison lost...

At this year’s Academy Awards, Flow, the stunning animated feature from Latvian filmmaker Gints Zilbalodis, has captured the attention of both critics and audiences, securing two Oscar nominations: Best Animated Feature and Best International Feature.

With its unique blend of visual storytelling, minimalistic script, and emotional depth, Flow has risen from a Cannes Film Festival favorite to a major contender in the 97th Academy Awards race.

Animated movie Flow | Credit: Dream Well Studio

The movie, which has already won critical acclaim and multiple prestigious awards, including a Golden Globes Award, tells the story of a group of animals— a cat, capybara, lemur, bird, and dog— who must bond together to survive after a devastating flood forces them into an uncertain new world. While the movie’s innovative approach to animation and narrative structure is garnering attention, it is the absence of dialogue that sets it apart from traditional animated movies.

Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Nick Park, Pascal Caucheteux, Maria Carlota Bruno and Rodrigo Teixeira are among international names added to the list of individual nominees for this year’s Oscars after the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Ampas) announced the remaining designated nominees in the best picture, animated feature and documentary feature categories.

Individual nominees for eight films had yet to be determined when Ampas revealed the list of Oscar nominations on January 23.

Working Title Films co-chairs Bevan and Fellner, together with director Coralie Fargeat (also nominated in the directing and original screenplay categories), have now been named...

On the morning of the 97th Oscar nominations, the words “nominees to be determined” were on everyone’s mind. Half of the Best Picture nominees — “The Brutalist,” “Emilia Pérez,” “I’m Still Here,” “Nickel Boys,” and “The Substance” — were announced without specific details over which producers would be eligible to attend and accept on the film’s behalf if it were to win. Animated Feature contenders “Flow” and “Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl” and Best Documentary Feature nominee “Sugarcane” were also announced without producers. The omissions sparked enough discussion that The Academy began selling “Nominees to Be Determined” tee shirts on its website.

The Academy determined the remaining nominations on Monday, February 10, announcing the producers for each remaining film. The list came with some notable omissions, particularly in the case of “The Brutalist.” Joining Brady Corbet as nominees are producers Nick Gordon, Brian Young, Andrew Morrison, and D.J. Gugenheim — not Mona Fastvold,...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has revealed all the producers for its Best Picture nominees, along with the missing names for a couple of other categories.

The producers vying for Best Picture are Nick Gordon, Brian Young, Andrew Morrison, D.J. Gugenheim and Brady Corbet for A24’s The Brutalist; Pascal Caucheteux and Jacques Audiard for Netflix’s Emilia Pérez; Maria Carlota Bruno and Rodrigo Teixeira for Sony Pictures Classics’ I’m Still Here; Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner and Joslyn Barnes for Orion Pictures/Amazon MGM Studios’ Nickel Boys; and Coralie Fargeat and Tim Bevan & Eric Fellner for Mubi’s The Substance.

The Academy today also set Gints Zilbalodis, Matīss Kaža, Ron Dyens and Gregory Zalcman as the nominated producers for Sideshow/Janus Films’ Animated Feature hopeful Flow and Nick Park, Merlin Crossingham and Richard Beek for fellow toon nominee Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl from Netflix.

Related:...

When the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced its Oscar nominations on Jan. 22, it was surprising to see quite a few films nominated for best picture, best animated feature and best documentary feature listed alongside a mention that specific nominees were “still to be determined.”

In some cases, this was because the Producers Guild of America, to which the Academy defers on best picture nominee credits, had not yet determined which producers were awards-eligible. In other cases, contenders were simply late turning in their own paperwork.

But the bottom line is that on Monday, the Academy shared a list of which individuals designated as nominees had been confirmed by the organization for Oscar nominations in those categories.

The newly confirmed nominees, who bring the total number of individuals nominated for awards at the 97th Oscars to 220, are as follows:

The Brutalist (A24): Nick Gordon, Brian Young, Andrew Morrison,...

The Academy has issued a list of eligible producers in the Animated Feature, Documentary Feature and Best Picture categories, with the list making “Emilia Pérez” director Jacques Audiard a rare four-time nominee this year and increasing the tally for “The Substance” director Coralie Fargeat and “The Brutalist” director Brady Corbet from two nominations to three.

Audiard is now nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Original Song. He joins a short list of quadruple nominees for the same film, which also includes Orson Welles for “Citizen Kane” (with the Best Picture nom officially going to his company), Warren Beatty for “Heaven Can Wait” and “Reds,” the Coen brothers for “No Country for Old Men” (the editing nod under a pseudonym), Alfonso Cuarón for “Roma” and Chloé Zhao for “Nomadland.”

Farget and Corbet also have nominations for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay, with the Best Picture nominations adding to their totals.

Gold Derby’s top news stories for Feb. 10, 2025

Euphoria releases first-look image as new season finally starts filming

It’s been about three years since the premiere of Euphoria Season 2 on HBO, but production has just started on Season 3, and HBO has shared a first-look image of Zendaya in character as Rue (see above).

Since the series first premiered in 2019, it has made stars of its cast, including Jacob Elordi, Sydney Sweeney, and Hunter Schafer, in addition to Zendaya, who won two Emmys for Best Drama Actress, making her the youngest double winner in the category’s history and the first Black woman to win it twice.

Sign UPfor Gold Derby’s free newsletter with latest predictions Super Bowl racks up record ratings … again

For the second year in a row the Super Bowl set an all-time ratings record. Nielsen and Fox report that 126 million viewers watched the game across platforms.

The movie is up for Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature, as well as Best International Feature.

A major Oscar contender is heading to Max, just in time for Valentine’s Day. The animated, feature-length movie “Flow” will make its streaming debut on Friday, Feb. 14, 70 days after being released in theaters on Dec. 6. “Flow” got a limited release in the U.S., but now audiences everywhere in the country will be able to stream it with a Max subscription starting at $10 per month.

Key Details: “Flow” tells the tale of a cat who bands together with other animals in the wake of a flood. The film is nominated for Best Animated Feature, and Best International Feature. Max also houses Oscar nominees like “Dune: Part Two.” Sign Up $9.99+ / month max via prime video

“Flow” hails from Latvia, and was only released in 200 theaters in the United States back in December. It...

DreamWorks Animation’s heartwarming “The Wild Robot” ran away with the most trophies at the 52nd annual Annie Awards with nine, including best feature. Netflix’s video game adaptation “Arcane” led the TV/Media categories with seven. But Saturday’s ceremony didn’t go off without a hitch, as a pair of fire alarms went off at the venue, UCLA’s, Royce Hall, including one that interrupted the ceremony.

A fire alarm went off about halfway through the ceremony, causing attendees to evacuate the theater and exit the building before returning to their seats and resuming the show. A second fire alarm went off during the pre-show reception, keeping hundreds of guests waiting on the grounds and unable to enter the event for roughly 45 minutes. “There was a sensor that was tripped and then had to act and get everybody out. Once the fire marshal said it was clear, we could go back in.

Following a late 2024 wide-theatrical release, the Oscar-nominated film Flow is set to make its streaming debut on Max Friday, February 14. Flow is one of a handful of stellar titles nominated for Best Animated Feature at the Oscars this year, featuring stunning CG animation and creative storytelling that relies solely on the musical score, diegetic animal sounds, and the images on the screen. You can read a full synopsis of the movie below:

"A wondrous journey, through realms natural and mystical, Flow follows a courageous cat after his home is devastated by a great flood. Teaming up with a capybara, a lemur, a bird, and a dog to navigate a boat in search of dry land, they must rely on trust, courage, and wits to survive the perils of a newly aquatic planet."

Flow is unique among the animated films nominated this year, thanks to its lack of dialogue. The movie...

Sideshow and Janus Films’ two-time Academy Award-nominated film Flow will make its streaming debut exclusively on Max in the U.S. next Friday, February 14. The film will debut on HBO linear on Saturday, February 15 at 6:30 p.m. Et.

A wondrous journey, through realms natural and mystical, Flow follows a courageous cat after his home is devastated by a great flood. Teaming up with a capybara, a lemur, a bird, and a dog to navigate a boat in search of dry land, they must rely on trust, courage, and wits to survive the perils of a newly aquatic planet.

From the boundless imagination of the award-winning filmmaker Gints Zilbalodis (Away) comes a thrilling animated spectacle as well as a profound meditation on the fragility of the environment and the spirit of friendship and community.

Steeped in the soaring possibilities of visual storytelling, Flow is a feast for the senses and a treasure for the heart.

“Walking around Riga city there are Flow posters everywhere and people are doing graffiti of cats,” filmmaker Gints Zilbalodis said of the response to his history-making sophomore feature in his home country. “It has provided a kind of uplifting feeling for Latvia.”

The national pride is understandable. On Thursday, Zilbalodis’ Flow earned Latvia its first Academy Award nominations. The film landed Best Animated Feature and Best International Feature from the American Academy. Latvia previously made 15 Oscar submissions before Flow but had never received a nomination. Zilbalodis spoke to us shortly after landing the historic noms on Thursday.

“I don’t know what to think. It’s just quite a lot. It was a very nervous day. We had to wait a long time and I couldn’t get any work done. I was just pacing around and now I’m just relieved and happy. But it’s been a crazy year,...

Gints Zilbalodis’ Flow, the animated film that had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, has earned Latvia its first Academy Award nominations.

The film landed Best Animated Feature and Best International feature noms this morning from the American Academy. Latvia had made 15 Oscar submissions prior to Flow but had never made

Zilbalodis (Away) co-wrote and directed the film, which follows a courageous cat after his home is devastated by a great flood. Teaming up with a capybara, a lemur, a bird, and a dog to navigate a boat in search of dry land, they must rely on trust, courage, and wits to survive the perils of a newly aquatic planet.

After its Cannes premiere in the Un Certain Regard sidebar, Flow won four prizes at France’s Annecy Fest in June: the Gan Foundation Award for Distribution, the Audience Award, the Jury Award, and a special prize for original music.

Ralph Fiennes stars as Cardinal Lawrence in director Edward Berger’s ‘Conclave’ (Credit: Courtesy of Focus Features. © 2024)

Conclave emerged the favorite among the 2025 Ee BAFTA Film Awards voters, scoring 12 nominations including Best Film, Director, Leading Actor, and Supporting Actress. Emilia Pérez was close behind with 11 nominations, followed by The Brutalist with nine and Anora, Dune: Part Two, and Wicked with seven.

Overall, 42 films earned BAFTA Film Awards nominations, and 14 of the 24 performance nominees are BAFTA Awards first-timers.

Winners will be announced on February 16th.

“From a total of 235 films entered, we are delighted to announce 42 extraordinary and creatively ambitious films that have been nominated. The skills on display from creative and technical practitioners across the board are phenomenal. I look forward to celebrating the many talented people in front of and behind the camera at the Ee BAFTA Film Awards 2025 ceremony on 16 February,” stated Sara Putt, Chair of BAFTA.

BAFTA...

This afternoon, Will Sharpe and Mia McKenna-Bruce announced the list of lucky nominees for 2025’s Ee BAFTA Awards.

This year nominations see 12 nominations for ‘Conclave,’ 11 nominations for ‘Emilia Pérez,’ While ‘The Brutalist’ received 9 nominations. 7 nominations for ‘Anora,’ ‘Dune: Part Two’ and ‘Wicked.’

14 out of 24 nominees in the performance categories have received their first BAFTA Film nomination, including Yura Borisov (Anora), Kieran Culkin (A Real Pain), Cynthia Erivo (Wicked), Karla Sofía Gascón (Emilia Pérez), Ariana Grande (Wicked), Selena Gomez (Emilia Pérez), Clarence Maclin (Sing Sing), Mikey Madison (Anora), Demi Moore (The Substance), Guy Pearce (The Brutalist), Isabella Rossellini (Conclave), Zoe Saldaña (Emilia Pérez), Sebastian Stan (The Apprentice) and Jeremy Strong (The Apprentice).

The Ee BAFTA Film Awards ceremony will once again be held at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall in central London, and broadcast on Sunday 16 February 2025 on BBC One and iPlayer in the UK.

Also in news – Jack Huston...

The nominations for the 2025 BAFTAs are here!

This year, Conclave scored the most nominations with 12 total. Emilia Pérez is in second with 11 nominations this year.

This year’s ceremony is set to take place on Sunday (February 16) live from London, England with Doctor Who‘s David Tennant returning to host.

Just Jared will be live updating throughout the event, so stay tuned!

Keep reading to find out more…

Scroll down for the full list of nominees…

Best Film

“Anora” — Alex Coco, Samantha Quan, Sean Baker

“The Brutalist”

“A Complete Unknown”

“Conclave”

“Emilia Pérez”

Outstanding British Film

“Bird” — Andrea Arnold, Tessa Ross, Juliette Howell, Lee Groombridge

“Blitz” — Steve McQueen, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Anita Overland

“Conclave” — Edward Berger, Tessa Ross, Juliette Howell, Michael A. Jackman, Peter Straughan

“Gladiator II” — Ridley Scott, Douglas Wick, Lucy Fisher, Michael Pruss, David Scarpa, Peter Craig

“Hard Truths” — Mike Leigh, Georgina Lowe

“Kneecap” — Rich Peppiatt, Trevor Birney,...

The 2025 Ee BAFTA Film Awards nominations are in, with 42 films receiving nods on Wednesday morning. Leading the crop of nominees are “Conclave” with 12, “Emilia Pérez” with 11, and “The Brutalist” with nine. “Anora,” “Dune: Part Two,” and “Wicked” all received seven nominations, even though “Wicked” was shut out from the Best Film category. Ireland’s Oscar entry “Kneecap,” which is on the Academy shortlist, made a strong showing with six nominations. Same with “A Complete Unknown.” “Nosferatu” and “The Substance,” meanwhile, both earned five nominations.

Shut-outs and also-rans included “Challengers,” which received zero nominations; Denzel Washington from the Best Supporting Actor category for his work in “Gladiator II”; Nicole Kidman, out for her work in “Babygirl”; and Daniel Craig, the English actor snubbed for his work in “Queer.” “Sing Sing” did well with three nominations including for Best Actor Colman Domingo and Best Supporting Actor Clarence Maclin. Selena Gomez is in for “Emilia Pérez,...

“Conclave” leads the pack of 2025 BAFTA Film Awards nominees with 12 nods, one more than “Emilia Pérez,” which had appeared on the most BAFTA longlists (15) when they were announced on Jan. 3.

Mia McKenna-Bruce and Will Sharpe announced the 2025 nominees live on Wednesday in London.

The British academy nominated “Conclave” for best film, outstanding British film, best director (for Edward Berger), lead actor (Ralph Fiennes), supporting actress (Isabella Rossellini), and adapted screenplay (Peter Straughan). “Emilia Pérez” picked up nods for best film, director (Jacques Audiard), lead actress (Karla Sofía Gascón), supporting actress (Selena Gomez and Zoe Saldaña) and adapted screenplay (Audiard).

“The Brutalist,” meanwhile, received nine nominations, including best film, director (Brady Corbet) and actor (Adrien Brody), followed by seven each for “Anora,” “Dune: Part Two” and “Wicked.” Of those three, only “Anora” made the cut for best film and director (Sean Baker). Coralie Fargeat landed the last spot in the director category,...

IndieWire has already written at length about why “Flow,” the adorable, inventive tale of a cat dealing with an apparently post-apocalyptic reality, is the best animated movie of the year — and one of the best films of 2024 full stop. In our review out of Cannes, where it premiered in Un Certain Regard, we said it was “one of the most groundbreaking animated films about nature since ‘Bambi.'”

As more people have seen the Sideshow and Janus release, “Flow” has won many more admirers — including those astonished at how the wordless Latvian film, directed by Gints Zilbalodis, who previously had made his films largely by himself, came together on such a small budget. Zilbalodis addressed the issue to IndieWire on the 2025 Golden Globes red carpet, alongside producer Matīss Kaža.

“I think it’s sometimes good to have some limitations,” Zilbalodis told IndieWire of his film’s budget. “I think it...

2024 was a year filled with many film releases, most of them based on pre-existing IPs or sequels. However, there were a few exceptions that completely stole the hearts of critics, moviegoers, and even fellow people in the entertainment industry.

In a feature piece on IndieWire with 65 directors sharing their favorite films of 2024, comedian and director of the critically acclaimed series Barry, Bill Hader, also weighed in. With a multitude of films to choose from, Hader opted for an animated indie film: Flow. The Latvian-directed animated film received critical acclaim and won numerous awards and nods, including a Critics' Choice Award nomination and a Golden Globes nomination.

Related Mufasa Takes Top Box Office Spot Over the Christmas Stretch, Nosferatu Debuts Strong

Mufasa: The Lion King takes the top spot over the 5-day holiday stretch at the box office.

Flow tells the heartwarming story of a black cat that finds itself in a flood.

Deadline’s Read the Screenplay series spotlighting the scripts fueling the year’s most talked-about movies continues with Flow, Janus Films and Sideshow’s dream-like animated feature from director Gints Zilbalodis. Matīss Kaža and Zilbalodis crafted a 35-page cinematic script featuring no dialogue, solely comprised of directorial instructions.

The acclaimed Cannes Film Festival darling, Latvia’s submission for this year’s International Feature Film Oscar race, just made the category’s shortlist after sweeping major awards including Best Feature at Annecy and Los Angeles, New York and National Board of Review critics. It has noms in international and animation categories from the Golden Globes and the Annies to Critics Choice and the Independent Spirit Awards.

The Janus Films and Sideshow pic hit U.S. theaters November 22 and it just crossed $2 million at the domestic box office.

The screenplay chronicles the journey of a cat, capybara, lemur, bird and dog forced...

Chicago – Chicago – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com audio film review for “Flow,” a new animated film out of the country Latkia, concerning a group of animals after a seismic world event … and directed by Gints Ziobalodis. In select theaters on December 6th.

The main animal is a cat, who traditionally is also a creature unto itself. In escaping from a pack of dogs, it’s suddenly is caught in a tsunami. Naturally seeking higher ground, it finds itself surrounded by water, until it has to leap upon a boat, with contains a Capybara, an animal that looks like a giant guinea pig. Soon they are joined by a junk collecting Lemur, a Labrador dog, and a distinctive looking predatory Secretarybird, who unlikely becomes the cat’s protector. The rest of the boat journey is a way to a new sanctuary, amid the ruins of a world that has been compromised...

Somehow I missed Flow when it premiered in Un Certain Regard in May at the Cannes Film Festival. Now having seen it just as it is about to open nationwide, it exceeds the various pockets of praise I had heard. It is a magical mystery tour into a sinking world, a wondrous, haunting, mystical and beautiful motion picture, something so unique it almost feels like a dream. How about that?

Now it is not only becoming a genuine contender in a very competitive Animated Feature Oscar race, it is also Latvia’s official entry for Best International Feature. This week it just won Animated Feature from both the New York Film Critics and the National Board Of Review, and no question this is just the beginning for a movie that is like no other this year.

Coming from Latvian animation filmmaker Gints Zilbalodis Flow represents only his second feature film,...

Flow (Straume), directed by Gints Zilbalodis (co-written and produced by Matiss Kaza) is Latvia’s enchanting Oscar entry

Flow, Latvia’s enchanting Oscar entry (sure to be shortlisted for Best International Film and a likely Best Animation nod), directed by Gints Zilbalodis, co-written with Matiss Kaza, is an apocalypse adjacent animal tale that fastens us to a little black cat with big eyes and transparent pink ears registering all that goes on in this puzzling world, which may or may not be ours, in the future or the past. There is a house where Cat lives, bathed in sunlight, with small pale butterflies fluttering on the meadow, reminiscent of Studio Ghibli’s white forest spirits in Hayao Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke or the dust bunny soot sprites in My Neighbour Totoro and Spirited Away.

Gints Zilbalodis: “Yeah, the cat is like literally reflecting on its experiences.” Photo: Anne Katrin Titze

Statues of cats,...

Gints Zilbalodis’s Flow might be wordless, but that’s not for lack of its maker having things to say. In Zilbalodis’s sophomore feature, the Latvian animator expands from a one-man operation into overseeing a fleet of technicians to create a vast, imagined world. Within a landscape defined by the creeping presence of a great flood and a conspicuous lack of humans, an intrepid black cat must learn to cooperate with a wide array of creatures to survive. Even without language, it’s never in doubt what the animals perceive or feel at any given moment.

As the feline protagonist seeks higher ground from the rising tides, the story invites any number of allegorical readings, from a post-human retelling of the Noah’s Ark story or a warning about a climate change-ravaged Earth. Zilbalodis builds subtlety into each scene that can unlock layers of how the characters respond to the calamity surrounding them.

I was totally enchanted by Flow. I expected to like it, as I usually do sitting down to watch something; I hoped to be engaged by it, and maybe to wonder at it. But I wasn't prepared to be as moved by it as I was. It's become my favorite animated movie of the year, though I note with interest that it and my two other contenders, Robot Dreams and The Wild Robot, all feel like siblings in a Wittgensteinian family. Flow is the most experimental of the three, and also the most focused.

Flow (2024) follows a solitary animal named Cat who must find refuge and collaborate with other species on a boat after a great flood devastates their home. As they sail through mystical, overflowed landscapes, the group navigates challenges and dangers while adapting to a transformed world.

Director Gints ZilbalodisRelease Date August 30, 2024Writers Matiss Kaza, Gints ZilbalodisRuntime 84 minutesGenres Animation,...

Exclusive: Dekanalog has picked up U.S. distribution rights to Drowning Dry, the latest feature from Lithuanian filmmaker Laurynas Bareiša.

Dekanalog will release the film theatrically in the U.S. in Spring 2025. The deal was negotiated by Dekanalog and Alpha Violet.

Written, directed, and shot by Bareiša, Drowning Dry tells the story of two sisters, Ernesta (Gelminė Glemžaitė) and Justė (Agnė Kaktaitė), whose lives are irrevocably altered after a near-tragic accident involving one of their children during a weekend getaway with their spouses, Tomas (Giedrius Kiela) and Lukas (Paulius Markevičius). The film was produced by Klementina Remeikaite’s Afterschool and co-produced by Matiss Kaza’s Trickster Pictures.

Drowning Dry was recently selected to represent Lithuania in the Best International Feature Film category at the 97th Academy Awards. Drowning Dry is Bareiša’s second film submitted to the Academy for Best International Feature. The film won the Best Director prize for...

Dialogue-free animation is currently mostly contained to artsy episodes of TV or emotionally devastating Pixar shorts. A sole reliance on visual storytelling has developed a mature reputation as popular kiddie fare has only gotten sillier and shoutier, more overrun with Minions and more reliant on YouTube’s autoplaying algorithm. But Gints Zilbalodis’ Flow,...

Gints Zilbalodis’ “Flow” (Sideshow and Janus) might be the animated surprise of the year. Co-written by Zilbalodis and Matiss Kaza, it’s a sublime adventure about a black cat trying to survive a massive flood, immersing the viewer in the action without dialogue but with a roving, 360-degree camera. It’s like Hayao Miyazaki meets Alfonso Cuarón in its cinematic daring. After earning the top prizes at the Animation Is Film and Ottawa International Animation festivals, the Latvian entry for the Best International Feature Oscar also vies for Best Animated Feature.

It all started with the director’s 2012 student short “Aqua,” about a cat overcoming its fear of water in the ocean. This inspired “Flow” (his second feature following “Away”), which greatly expands the story so that now it’s a black cat confronting its fear of water and other animals by escaping a flood in a boat with a capybara,...

None of the characters in Latvian animator Gints Zilbalodis’s poignant, vividly realized Flow utter a single word. They’re all animals, which normally wouldn’t keep them from talking in an animated feature, but so much of what makes Flow so rewarding and unexpected is how Zilbalodis resists the temptation to anthropomorphize his CGI critters.

The film’s concise visual language expertly immerses us in its post-apocalyptic narrative, which follows the journey of a black cat in a human-less world devastated by a cataclysmic flood. Fearful and suspicious, the cat eventually boards a sailboat as water swallows the landscape, falling in with other animals whose personalities are just as easy to decipher: a chilled-out capybara, a hoarding lemur, an excitable Labrador retriever, and a high-strung secretarybird. We’re never at a loss to know how the cat feels at any given moment, as Zilbalodis finds multitudes in the position of its ears,...

The 37th European Film Awards, which take place annually in the lakeside Swiss city of Lucerne, have unveiled their nominations for 2024. Unsurprisingly, the list is led by French director Jacques Audiard’s Spanish-language cartel musical “Emilia Pérez” with four nominations including European Film and Best Actress for Karla Sofia Gascón. Surprisingly, Audiard, previously a five-time Efa nominee, has never won a prize from the European Film Academy, which boasts more than 5,000 members across the continent. Getting a boost is Mohammad Rasoulof’s Iranian family thriller “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” with three nominations including European Film. It’s Germany’s submission for the International Feature Oscar this year due to its dominantly European production despite filming in secret in banished director Rasoulof’s home country.

European Film Award staple Pedro Almodóvar’s Venice Golden Lion winner “The Room Next Door” notched four noms including European Film, Director, Actress for Tilda Swinton,...