Mar 27, 2025
How an indie film made in Blender won big at the Oscars
Opinion
For the longest of times commercial animated films have been dominated by major studios like Dreamworks, Disney, and Pixar. They've established an industry standard with software like 3ds Max and Autodesk Maya along with their in-house developed software with little to no room for competition.
The Academy Awards, considered to be the highest form of critical recognition for films have always been saturated with the whales of the animation industry with hefty budgets and an army of artists. This simply narrows the entry pathway to such an extent that independent art films find it almost impossible to get a nomination, let alone a win.
A small team of 4, with a budget of €3.5 million and a open source 3D software in their arsenal made their way into the 2025 Oscar nominations for best animated feature.
The entire project took about five and a half years - Gints Zibalodis
Flow, an indie animated adventure film made entirely in blender won the Best animated feature this year. Gints Zibalodis, the director of the film worked with 3 others to work on various aspects of the film from modeling, texturing, rigging and animation. Gints is not new to animation, he has worked on several other animated works.
Blender is an open sourced 3D software, meaning, its free to use and is entirely funded by donations and development funds. Flow has not only won the Academy Awards and brought Gint his well deserved recognition on a global stage, it has also made a Blender logo shaped mark on the 3D animation industry. Blender is the only open sourced 3D software that provides the kind of tools and functionality that it offers.
Industry professionals have rarely used blender for professional works or as an industry standard tool. The news of Flow's win has brought attention to Blender, which was recently in financial trouble.
It brings me happiness to know that Blender is getting its recognition as a strong 3D design software that is constantly improving and may soon stand as an industry-standard software. It almost feels like watching your childhood friend finally get the recognition for their talent and skills.