Sideshow And Janus Films To Distribute Gints Zilbalodis’ ‘Flow’ In North America

Flow, the second feature from Latvian director Gints Zilbalodis, has been acquired for North American distribution by Sideshow and Janus Films.

Flow just premiered in the Un Certain Regard sidebar of the 2024 Cannes Film Festival and will screen in competition next month at Annecy. Like his earlier feature Away, Zilbalodis, 30, used virtual camera and real-time rendering techniques to help achieve the final look of the film.

However, unlike his earlier feature, which Zilbalodis made entirely by himself, he had a crew and a larger budget this time. Flow cost €3.4 million (USD$4.1m) and is a Latvia/France/Belgium co-production, with most of the animation done at Sacrebleu Productions (France) and Take Five (Belgium). Zilbalodis produced through his own Latvian studio, Dream Well Studio.

Here is the film’s official synopsis, followed by the trailer:

The world seems to be coming to an end, teeming with the vestiges of a human presence. Cat is a solitary animal, but as his home is devastated by a great flood, he finds refuge on a boat populated by various species, and will have to team up with them despite their differences. In the lonesome boat sailing through mystical overflowed landscapes, they navigate the challenges and dangers of adapting to this new world.

Distributors Sideshow and Janus Films call Flow “one of the most remarkably original works we have seen in some time,” and they are planning a theatrical release for the film in North America. Janus is an iconic, nearly-70-year-old art house distribution company that has largely focused on live-action films, and its three-year-old partner company Sideshow has released Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car, Jerzy Skolimowski’s EO, and Shaunak Sen’s All That Breathes, all nominated for Academy Awards.

Ron Dyens, a producer on Flow as well as founder of Sacrebleu Productions, said on behalf of the filmmakers, “After a standing ovation at the Cannes screening, we are delighted to put our little cat in the delicate hands of Sideshow and Janus Films. We are certain that this is the best company to take Flow to the heights it deserves.”

The film’s trailer recently received a nice shout-out on social media from director Guillermo del Toro, who wrote, “If I could wish for the future of animation, these images would be its magnificent, breathtaking start.”

If I could wish for the future of animation, these images would be its magnificent, breathtaking start. https://t.co/mI1rp2l9Ar

— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) May 27, 2024