For decades, the Oscars’ Best Animated Feature category has belonged to giants(new window). Companies like Disney — with massive budgets and proprietary technology — have shaped the medium, dominating theaters and awards shows alike. But at the 97th Academy Awards, something changed(new window).
The winner was not a Hollywood studio. It was not Disney’s Inside Out 2, one of the highest-grossing films of the year. It was Flow, a quiet, wordless fable from Latvia — a country that had never even been nominated for an Oscar before.
Flow, the story of a cat and other stray animals navigating a flooded world, was made with Blender(new window), a free, open source 3D animation tool — and its victory proved that open source technology can challenge industry giants and win.
The dream of an open source revolution
For many years, animation has been dominated by studios with proprietary, custom-built technology that independent filmmakers could rarely afford. Disney developed their own in-house tools—refined over years but unavailable to the public. For most creators, the choice was simple: work within this system or be left behind.
But Flow broke the system open.
Director Gints Zilbalodis and his small team at Rija Films(new window) didn’t have access to proprietary technology or massive budgets. Instead, they used Blender(new window) — a program built by a global network of developers who believe that creativity shouldn’t be limited by financial power.
This was not just a technical decision. It was a philosophical one. Blender represents an alternative vision of technology — one where innovation is driven by a community rather than a corporation, where progress is open to everyone rather than protected behind patents and paywalls.
That vision has now been validated in the most public way possible. Flow, an independent film with a budget of just $3.6 million(new window), defeated Inside Out 2, which cost $200 million(new window). As Australian animator Adam Elliot put it, independent animators like Zilbalodis are working with budgets that major studios “spend on catering(new window).”
And yet, Flow still triumphed.
A new kind of power
It is easy to see Flow’s win as an underdog story, a small Latvian studio triumphing over one of the biggest names in animation. But that is only part of it. This was not just about one film winning an award. It was about power — who has it and who can challenge it.
In the same way that Blender is transforming animation, open source software is reshaping the internet itself.
For years, digital security was dominated by a handful of big tech companies. They controlled the software, the infrastructure, and the rules. Users had to trust that these corporations were protecting their privacy — without any way to verify it. That is why Proton, for example, takes an open source approach.
All Proton apps — Proton Mail, Proton VPN(new window), Proton Drive, Proton Pass, and Proton Calendar — are open source and have been independently audited. Anyone can inspect the code, verify its security, or even contribute to the development and security of Proton apps. Just like Blender empowers independent filmmakers, Proton ensures that privacy is not just a promise but a verifiable reality.
The future of the internet belongs to those who build it
After Flow’s Oscar win, Latvian President Edgars Rinkēvičs wrote on X: “Something big and beautiful occurred.”
And that something was beautiful indeed: A film made with free, community-driven tools beat one of the most powerful companies in animation. It proved that high-quality filmmaking is no longer reserved for billion-dollar studios with truckloads of cash to dump into production. That power can shift. That the future belongs to those who dare to challenge the status quo.
This is not just a story about one film. It is about an idea — one that is spreading across industries, from animation to cybersecurity to the very structure of the internet itself.
Open source isn’t just an alternative — it’s the future. Be a part of it.
