‘Flow’ Writer/Producer Matīss Kaža Introducing New Projects at Locarno

In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter ahead of the Locarno Film Festival, Latvian filmmaker Matīss Kaža discusses a new animated feature project from Gints Zilbalodis and Dream Well Studio he will be presenting at the Swiss cinema celebration. Kaža is best known as Zilbalodis’ writing and producing partner on the widely acclaimed, dialog-free animated feature Flow.

Kaža will also be presenting a live-action mockumentary project produced through his Trickster Films banner, I Love You, Lex Fridman, about an out of work Latvian actress (Iveta Pole) who becomes infatuated with American podcaster Lex Fridman while listening to his show on her courier job rides.

Here’s what he shared about the new animated feature project:

• Title: Limbo
• Director: Gints Zilbalodis
• Status/Release Date: Pre-Production, 2028
  • “Just like with Gints’ previous projects, this is also a film where the different stages of production are kind of happening at the same time. As Gints is doing the animatic, which is what he’s working on right now, he’s also writing the script, and he’s also composing hours and hours of music to test on the animatic. So everything is kind of simultaneous. All these different elements, which traditionally come in various stages, are being worked on at the same time.”
• Limbo will be the first time Zilbalodis is working with dialog. The project will still mostly be produced in Blender.
• Currently, a very small team of three or four are working on the initial stages of the film in Latvia.
• Limbo has received the highest grant ever awarded from Latvia’s National Film Center, a little over 2 million euros ($2.3 million USD).

Produced by Dream Well (Latvia), Sacrebleu (France) and Take Five (Belgium), Flow (2024) is a non-dialog, stylized Blender-animated feature film that follows an untrusting cat as it joins a rag tag boat crew of different animals, sailing on through a flooded post-human world and learning to understand and rely upon each other. The film was released in the U.S. by Sideshow and Janus Films, and was one of the stars of the 2024-2025 awards season.

Flow won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature and was Latvia’s first submission for International Feature to receive a nomination in that category. The cat’s tale also picked up the Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature, two Annie Awards (Independent Feature and Writing), the César Award for Best Animated Film, the European Film Award for Animated Feature and three prizes from Annecy.

The film is available to stream on HBO Max and related bundles, as well as to rent or own on digital and on Blu-ray/DVD from The Criterion Collection.

You can read the full interview with Kaža at THR.