Gints Zilbalodis facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Gints Zilbalodis
Zilbalodis in 2025
Born	(1994-04-13) April 13, 1994 (age 30) Riga, Latvia
Occupation	Animator, film director, composer
Notable work	Away (2019) Flow (2024)

Gints Zilbalodis (born April 13, 1994) is a Latvian filmmaker. He is best known for directing the animated features Away (2019) and Flow (2024), of which the latter received a nomination for Best International Feature Film and won the Best Animated Feature at the 97th Academy Awards, making him and co-producer Matīss Kaža the first Latvians to win an Academy Award.

Early life

Gints Zilbalodis is the child of a painter mother and a sculptor father. He gained interest in filmmaking as a medium for expressing his thoughts; he stated that he struggles to express his emotions externally. He chose not to attend university as Latvia had no animation schools, instead teaching himself animation, sound design, and musical composition.

Career

After directing a string of animated short films, Zilbalodis' debut feature, Away, premiered in 2019. Written, directed, and scored by Zilbalodis himself, Away was awarded the Contrechamps prize at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival and was nominated for an Annie Award for Outstanding Achievement for Music in a Feature Production.

Zilbalodis' second feature film, Flow, was selected to screen in the Un Certain Regard portion of the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. Unlike his past works, Flow marked the first time Zilbalodis collaborated with other staff, with animation co-produced by Sacrebleu Productions of France and Take Five of Belgium. It went on to win numerous awards worldwide, including Best Animated Feature at the 97th Academy Awards and Best Animated Feature at the 82nd Golden Globe Awards, while receiving nominations for two British Academy Film Awards and the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. Due to the success of Flow in Latvia, Zilbalodis was honoured as "Riga Citizen of the Year" in 2024.

Filmography

Short films

• Rush (2010)
• Aqua (2012)
• Prioritātes (2014)
• Followers (2015)
• Inaudible (2015)
• Oasis (2017)

Feature films

• Away (2019)
• Flow (2024)

Awards and nominations