Flow – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

International Oscar Race: Vulnerable Women Abound, Female Directors Do Not – Jennifer Green reports

December 18, 2024December 21, 2024 Jennifer Green ampas, Armand, dahomey, Emilia Perez, Flow, From Ground Zero, How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies, i'm still here, INTERNATIONAL OSCARS 2025, oscars, santosh, The Girl with the Needle, The Seed of the Sacred Fig, Universal Language, Vermiglio

“Being a woman is beautiful,” says one of the elderly narrators of Costa Rica’s entry for the International Oscar, Memories of a Burning Body. “But there’s also an ugly side to it: you’re always vulnerable.” Judging by this year’s leading contenders for the International Oscar, the feeling is global. Countries around the world submitted female-centered stories for the global Oscar category this year, with women protagonists finding themselves in disadvantaged situations but also often discovering their own strength against all manner of obstacles.

Some of these films made the shortlist for the award, announced Tuesday, Dec. 17, such as Brazil’s I’m Still Here, France’s Emilia Pérez, Germany’s The Seed of the Sacred Fig, Palestine’s From Ground Zero and the UK’s Santosh. Many did not, including Burning Body.

Reviews

FLOW – Review by Diane Carson

December 18, 2024December 22, 2024 Diane Carson 3d animation, animation, Flow, Gints Zilbalodis, Latvian films

Latvian writer/director Gints Zilbalodis presents an imaginative, fabulous 3D animated film. Told solely from an expressive black cat’s point-of-view, no human voices intrude into any part of the story. After establishing a populated forest environment, the action jumps into high gear quickly with a catastrophic flash flood inundating the area. After nearly drowning, the black cat (hereafter called Cat and from whose point-of-view all events unfold) scrambles and struggles to survive, eventually taking refuge aboard a small boat with a friendly dog, an indifferent capybara, a feisty lemur, and am officious secretary bird. The five animals, not normally found together, forge a bond, though all are wary at first, solving conflicts in tandem. They change, they trust, and they come to appreciate each other as these animals navigate a perilous series of crises, including a deserted, devastated city.

Festivals Reviews

FLOW (TIFF 2024) – Review by Nadine Whitney

September 16, 2024September 15, 2024 Nadine Whitney animation, Flow, Gints Zilbalodis, Latvian films, Matīss Kaža, TIFF 2024

Latvian director Gints Zilbalodis’s impeccable fable Flow is again proof of Guillermo Del Toro’s maxim that animation is cinema – “It’s a medium for art, it’s a medium for film, and I think animation should stay in the conversation.” Del Toro argued that animation is not just for children and Flow, although family friendly, is a sophisticated metaphor for the effects for environmental crises, and for the experience of refugees trying to stay alive and learning to trust each other despite linguistic and cultural differences. Flow is a work of immense cinematic art. A film with no dialogue and no humans that speaks to both the human condition and considers the immensity of the natural world which is suffering because of our failures as a species. Flow is a profound, emphatic, and empathetic experience.