Born in Riga in 1994, Gints Zilbalodis makes animated films almost alone, using free software and long, virtual-camera takes. Away (2019) is a wordless adventure of a boy on a motorbike, made entirely by himself in 3.5 years. Flow (2024), about a black cat who survives a flood with other animals, with no dialogue, won the Oscar for best animated feature, the first for Latvia, and the LUX Audience Award. It was made with the open-source software Blender.