The Oscar-winning movie that pets cannot stop watching

One night shortly before the Oscars ceremony in early March, my boyfriend decided to catch up on Flow, the animated film from Latvia that would go on to win best animated feature.

- Esther Zuckerman

NEW YORK — One night shortly before the Oscars ceremony in early March, my boyfriend decided to catch up on Flow, the animated film from Latvia that would go on to win best animated feature.

When I returned home from dinner, I found that the movie had also captured the attention of another viewer—my dog Daisy, a corgi mix.

Search on TikTok and you will find a number of videos of dogs and cats alike viewing Flow alongside their owners, appearing to recognize themselves in the gentle saga, which tells the tale of an adorable black kitty who must work with a motley crew of other industrious animals to survive rising sea levels in a surreal landscape.

The trend is a particularly cute coda to what was already one of the feel-good stories of awards season in which the dialogue-free indie—made on open-source software and directed by Gints Zilbalodis—triumphed over studio fare such as Inside Out 2 and The Wild Robot to earn Latvia its first Oscar.

Watching Flow in the theatre is a wonderfully immersive experience, where the spectacle of the movie's visuals are on full display. On a big screen, you can lose yourself in the animation, noticing the way the water ripples, succumbing to the beauty and terror of the universe this little kitty is trying to navigate.

Watching Flow at home—it is streaming on platforms like Prime Video, Apple TV+, and Max—with an animal is an equally delightful experience, but a different one.

You may find your attention pulled in two directions as you try to contemplate what this all means to your pet as well as what it means to you.