Oscar Winning Animated Film ‘Flow’ Gets 4K Blu-ray Release From Criterion

If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Rolling Stone may receive an affiliate commission.

Flow was an unexpected winner at the 97th Oscars; the independently produced animated film beat out the big studios to nab the best animated film trophy, earning Latvia its first Oscar.

The unconventional animated film doesn’t have any dialogue. Instead, the animation, music, and sound design speak for the narrative, which is about a cat trying to stay afloat following a flood. That’s why the film is worth seeing in the highest resolution possible, but if you missed it in theaters, Flow is getting a new 4K UHD release from The Criterion Collection.

Flow (The Criterion Collection) [4K UHD]

$35.28 $49.95 29% off

preorder On Amazon

There’s no official release, but it was reported in February that the film would arrive from the Criterion Collection sometime later this year. Today, the disc popped up for preorder on Amazon, including on 4K, Blu-ray, and DVD, although there is still no release date.

In addition to its Academy Award, the film picked up the Golden Globe trophy for Best Animated Film. It’s directed by Gints Zilbalodis, who also directed 2019’s Away.

Notably, the film cost $3.7 million to produce and beat out films like The Wild Robot and Inside Out 2, which cost $78 million and $200 million to produce, respectively. Part of what kept costs down was the team’s use of Blender, a free, open-source software used for computer animation. Zilbalodis thanked Blender in his speech, adding that he hoped Flow’s win “will open doors to independent animation filmmakers around the world.”

Rolling Stone film critic David Fear praised the film, writing, “Director Gints Zilbalodis may be gathering an admittedly adorable posse of all creatures bright and beautiful, each of them rendered in a gorgeous, sometimes crude style of animation that would be best characterized as Early PlayStation Cut-Scene Chic. But in terms of storytelling, he’s going a specifically anti-Disney route here, and this road less traveled makes all of the difference. There’s no dialogue, at least none decipherable to human ears — everything is a symphony of meows, woofs, squawks, grunts, squeaks, squeals and simian cries.”

Flow is also streaming on Max, which is available as a standalone subscription, a bundle with Disney+ and Hulu, or as a Prime Video add-on.