Flow Wins The Oscar, The Wild Robot Wins An Oscat

The 2024-25 awards season has reached its traditional climax, with the taking place of The Oscars. The ceremony, also known as the Academy Awards is typically seen as the biggest and final event of the season. This past weekend saw the 97th Academy Awards take place in Hollywood, California.

This year's nominations for best animated feature were Inside Out 2, The Wild Robot, Flow, Memoir Of A Snail and Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl. In what could be viewed as something of an upset, the Oscar went to Gints Zilbalodis's Flow. It is the first win for Zilbalodis and for his home country of Latvia. It's also the second year in a row that the award went to a non-Hollywood animation, following last year's The Boy and The Heron. Not bad for a fiilm with a $4 million budget, rendered entirely in open-source software Blender. Flow was also nominated for Best International Feature Film, but lost out to Brazil I'm Still Here. The Wild Robot was also nominated for best original score, but was beaten by The Brutalist.

The nominations for Best Animated Short Film were Beautiful Men, In The Shadow Of the Cypress, Magaic Candies, Wander To Wonder and Yuck!. Wander To Wonder did not repeat its success at last week's BAFTAs and The Annies, The award instead went to Iranian filmmakers Shirin Sohani and Hossein Molayemi and In The Shadow Of The Cypress.

Achievement in Visual Effects went to Denis Vileneuve's Dune Part Two. The sci-fi sequel overcame competition from fellow nominees Alien Romulus, Better Man, Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes and Wicked.

The Oscars aren't the only game in town however. Also announced were this year's winners for the 8th annual Oscats,  PETA's celebration of films and actors that champion kindness to animals.

Best Animated Film went to The Wild Robot for reminding audiences to respect the natural world and the animals that live in it. Mufasa: The Lion King was awarded Best Sleeper Hit, celebrating its astounding artistry and its message that "every being has a place in the circle of life". It's also recognised for using all CGI animals, and not exploiting the real thing.

Best Actor went to Robbie Williams for his performance as a CGI chimp in biopic-with-a-twist Better Man, proving that VFX is the best way to responsibily portray primates on screen.

Oscats were also awarded to Tim Burton for portraying animals through cutting-edge technology- a mix of digital and physical techniques- and for casting his own dog; Wicked stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo who were awarded for championing the rights of animals on and off screen and Timothée Chalamet for his performance in Dune Part Two.

“Hollywood put animal advocacy center stage in 2024, from exposing the cruelties of animal testing to bringing lions, mice, and other animals to life with impressive, humane technology,” says PETA’s Director of Animals in Film and Television, Lauren Thomasson. “PETA is celebrating Cynthia, Ariana, Timothée, and the other compassionate artists and projects who wowed audiences worldwide with powerful storytelling that left animals in peace.”