‘Flow’ Will Join the Criterion Collection Later This Year with 4K Special Edition
If you haven’t seen Gints Zilbalodis’s wondrous “Flow,” IndieWire’s pick for the best animated movie of 2024 (and the highest-ranked animated film on our list of the best movies of 2024), you’re going to have another very exciting way to see it later this year: “Flow,” a Sideshow and Janus Films release, is entering the Criterion Collection and will available in a 4K special edition to own at home.
One of the most acclaimed films of the past year across the board, “Flow” has earned two Academy Award nominations: for Best Animated Feature and Best International Feature — only one other film has ever scored nominations in both categories, 2021’s “Flee.” It also just won the Annie Awards for Best Animated Feature (Independent) and Best Writing.
More from IndieWire
“It’s an absolute dream come true to see ‘Flow’ featured in the Criterion Collection alongside the legendary filmmakers I grew up admiring, like Cuarón, Anderson, and Scorsese,” Zilbalodis said in a statement. “I can’t thank Criterion enough for this incredible honor! I’m thrilled to collaborate with them on the ultimate 4K special edition of ‘Flow.’ I have so much great stuff to share. It’s going to be amazing!”
“Flow” has exceeded $4 million at the U.S. box office and remains in theaters. It’ll make its exclusive streaming debut on Friday, February 14 on Max, with its debut on HBO linear following on Saturday, February 15.
The wordless film about a group of animals learning to coexist and work together on a small boat after a mysterious flood changes their world features some of the greatest character animation of animals the medium has ever seen. It was made in an extremely economical way, where each frame had such purpose that the film has no deleted scenes. What was animated is what you see in the film.
Zilbalodis told IndieWire on the red carpet of the Golden Globes (shortly before “Flow” won Best Animated Feature), “I think it’s sometimes good to have some limitations. I think it pushes you in a new and original way creatively. We had to be very precise. I’m very proud that we don’t have deleted scenes, that everything that we put in the film ended up on the screen. And I think that’s a good lesson to really focus [on] … I was wearing a lot of hats myself, so I was kind of multitasking, and everyone was multitasking. We did it in very unconventional ways. I thought there was no reason just to copy what everyone else was doing, because then we’re not going to stand out. But if you try something new and take some risks, I think then we have a chance, and I guess it worked out for us.”
The director also recorded a sitdown conversation about the process of creating this extraordinary film, which has also won Best Animated Film at the European Film Awards, National Board of Review, New York Film Critics Circle and Los Angeles Films Critics Association awards, for the IndieWire Toolkit podcast, which you can listen to here.
Best of IndieWire
Sign up for Indiewire's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Solve the daily Crossword
