WeAnimate 2026-02-11 | wam#00XX

At WeAnimate Day 2025, producer, writer, and director Matīss Kaža offered a rare inside look into the making of Flow—an independent animated film that has become one of the most talked-about animation successes in recent years.

Produced far from the traditional power centers of the animation industry, Flow has demonstrated that scale, budget, and geography are no longer defining limits for animated storytelling. In this candid interview, Kaža reflects on moving from live action and documentary filmmaking into animation, the risks of creating a dialogue-free feature, and why the film’s success may signal a broader shift for independent animation worldwide.

From Documentary to Animation: Transferable Skills, New Timelines

Kaža’s background is firmly rooted in live action and documentary filmmaking, and stepping into animation was, by his own account, a leap into unfamiliar territory. Yet many of the core filmmaking skills carried over—albeit applied within a very different production reality.

“When working on my first animated film, I didn’t really know much about the animation production process. So it was all a big learning experience.”

What surprised him most was not the complexity of animation, but its rhythm. Unlike documentary or live action, where problems must be solved immediately on set, animation allows for reconsideration—at the cost of time.

“You could always go back and resolve an issue because it’s animation… But it takes a long time. It took five years to make the movie.”

That long horizon required patience, rigor, and trust—both in collaborators and in one’s own instincts. Kaža emphasizes that producing Flow was as much about learning how to build an international animation workflow as it was about storytelling.

“There was a lot of guessing, there was a lot of intuitive work, there was a lot of precise work. It’s a mix of all those things.”

Storytelling Without Words

One of Flow’s most distinctive creative choices is its lack of dialogue. For Kaža, this was initially daunting—especially when co-writing a story set entirely within a world created by director Gints Zilbalodis.

“What was scary at first was working on the screenplay together with him and trying… to jump into a world that’s created by someone else.”

Without dialogue, every narrative beat had to be communicated through image, sound, rhythm, and performance. This forced a return to fundamental cinematic principles.

“For us it was kind of a jump back into the basics of the cinematic elements, and I think that shows on screen.”

The absence of spoken language became a strength rather than a limitation, allowing the film to resonate across cultures and territories without translation barriers.

A Documentary Eye Inside a Fully Animated World

Although Flow is entirely animated and deeply fantastical, Kaža notes that his documentary background influenced its visual language—particularly the film’s immersive virtual camera.

“The virtual camera makes you feel as if you’re there with the characters at all times… sometimes it turns a bit late, like it would in documentary filmmaking.”

This sense of imperfection and spontaneity creates intimacy, grounding the film emotionally even as it unfolds in an invented reality. Even research methods carried echoes of documentary practice.

“A study of archival footage was a very important part of the Flow pre-production process. And archival footage in our case means cat videos.”

Independent Animation on the Rise

For Kaža, Flow’s international reception confirms a broader shift in how audiences perceive animation—not as a genre, but as a medium.

“People are realizing that animation is not a genre… it’s a mode of expression that can reach different kinds of audiences.”

The film’s success across festivals, awards, and global distribution surprised even its creators—not least because it emerged from a small national industry with limited resources.

“What surprised me is that an independent animated film… could compete with the big Hollywood blockbuster animated movies.”

Winning major international recognition—including at Annecy, the Annies, and the Academy Awards—Flowdemonstrated that authenticity and artistic clarity can stand alongside vastly larger productions.

A Message Beyond the Film

Ultimately, Kaža sees Flow not only as a personal achievement, but as a signal to emerging filmmakers everywhere.

“Somebody from a very, very small country… can, on a small budget, with a team of fun misfits, create a piece of art that really resonates worldwide.”

For young animators teaching themselves online, working outside established systems, or questioning whether their voice matters, Flow offers a clear answer: it does.