CEEA Talks: Dita Rietuma (Latvian Film Centre) about FLOW: “Welcomed like stars of the national hockey team”

A little black Latvian cat is stealing all the attention these days. When meeting Dita Rietuma, head of the Latvian Film Centre, at CEEA’s GO! 2025 Conference in Nova Gorica / Gorizia, she proudly wears a sweater of the four-legged friend – from any angle in the room, his yellow eyes keep staring at you. If we want to find out about all the Film Centre’s merits over the years, wouldn’t it be better to ignore that animal for a while…?

Dita Rietuma: I disagree! That cat deserves all the attention in the world. FLOW is a phenomenon; the film has a huge impact, not only on Latvian cinema, but on European and global independent animation in general. Made on a small €3,5 million budget, it won an Academy Award and is commercially and artistically successful. We might make this distinction too often, but FLOW is the ultimate proof that both are possible. The film speaks on a metaphorical level, uses a modern open source programme like Blender, and makes big numbers in global distribution. Up to this day, the film made more than 40 million box office gross worldwide, and it’s still running. It’s huge on streaming platforms. At the National Film Centre – being the main national financier of the project – we’re proud that FLOW became the most popular film in Latvia since the restoration of independence in 1991.

All of that is true. But FLOW is not the only reason why I want to know more about the Latvian Film Centre, the work you have been doing and the ideas behind it. Like the intriguing tagline going around: “We don’t have the money but we have a strong strategy.”

Rietuma: We’re not hopping from panel to panel, and we’re not the kings of PowerPoint presentations. I think there’s too many PowerPoints in this world, too much buzz and talk, but in the end, action speaks louder than words.

And you have the tradition on your side.

Rietuma: Our animation tradition goes back to the Soviet times – the first Latvian animation film studios were founded in the mid-1960s. And since the 90s, we have always had studios working on an international level. Rija Studios was involved in the French Oscar-nominated THE TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE (by Sylvain Chomet, 2003); back then Latvia didn’t have the status to officially profile itself as co-producer of such a big European title, and the work of Rija Studio remained underexposed, even though they were responsible for substantial parts of the animation. Fortunately, the centre’s budget grew slowly over the years. It’s still the smallest among all Baltic countries, but during the last decade, we were able to fulfil our ambition: to consequently support feature-length animation films.

When it comes to animation, features are your core business, indeed.

Rietuma: Before the beginning of the streaming era, short animations often seemed to quickly disappear from the market. Nobody wanted to screen shorts in the cinemas. If you were lucky, your film had a nice festival career around Europe, and that was it. We felt more like supporting animated features, made on a bigger budget. A push forward came with the programme celebrating Latvia’s 100th anniversary in 2018, for which additional support was distributed, resulting in two feature length animations. There was BEFORE THE DAY BREAKS (aka SAULE BRAUCA DEBESIS, 2018) by Roze Stiebra, the grand lady of Latvian animation who started her career in the early 70s. Unfortunately, she passed away last year, after having finished her last feature RULE OF THE HEART (aka SIRDS LIKUMS) in 2020. It didn’t travel well because – like most of her work – it’s based on verbal expression, folklore, songs and stories. This gave her films a rather local appeal. The other anniversary animation was JACOB, MIMMI AND THE TALKING DOGS (2019), a successful international co-production by Atom Art, directed by Edmunds Jansons. Those titles gave a boost to the production of feature animations.

There’s also the remarkable works of Signe Baumane.

Rietuma: Living in New York, she was born and raised in Latvia. We supported many of her works, like her feature animations ROCKS IN MY POCKETS (2014) and MY LOVE AFFAIR WITH MARRIAGE (2022). We’re currently financing her new film KARMIC KNOT, estimated for 2028.

And all this is exclusively about feature animations. That is remarkable!

Rietuma: This is what I realise when going abroad. The amount of animated features we’ve supported makes us quite unique. This we can only do by dividing our total budget – which is around €800,000 – over several longer periods. For example, the financing of FLOW was spread over four years, with approx. €250,000 per year. The total amount of €1 million may seem like peanuts to some European countries, for us it was huge. It must be that we genuinely believed in what these guys were doing. Giving them a substantial share, allows our production companies to find international co-producers, while still safeguarding a Latvian majority in their projects.

Like Matīss Kaža (Dreamwell Studio) did with FLOW.

Rietuma: With a €3,5 million budget, it was a delicate challenge for him to secure a Latvian majority. He managed through our financing, the input from streamers and broadcasters, and a Eurimages grant. Almost the film had become a majoritarian French production, but he just managed to get by.

Is there a permanent representation from the animation industry in the Film Centre?

Rietuma: The industry is represented by the Latvian Animation Association, with Sabine Andersone as Head of the Board. They’re not directly involved with the work of the Film Centre, but we are partners, we communicate regularly, and we support their activities. For instance, the Latvian Focus in Cartoon Movie 2025 is organised with our support.

How will FLOW’s success have an impact on your work?

Rietuma: We ramped up our investments. This year, the government will invest one million euros extra in animated projects. The authors of FLOW will present a new project; their budget will be huge, and we don’t want other projects to suffer from that. An Oscar campaign requires extra investments, which were partly provided by the Latvian Film Centre. Also the Investment & Development Agency for business activities, resorting under the Ministry of Economics, supported the campaign with a substantial budget.

What does it mean for Latvian people?

Rietuma: It’s huge. The Oscar, the Golden Globe and the European Film Award are on display in the National Museum for a week; thousands of people were going there to see them with their own eyes. Upon their return from Los Angeles, the filmmakers were welcomed like heroes, with a status similar to stars of the national hockey team. This never happened to a Latvian film before. The popularity of Latvian cinema has been going up and down over the years, with the changing taste and preferences of the audience. But now a cultural product has been produced that applies to every possible taste. I admire this young team – Gints Zilbalodis and Matīss Kaža are both brilliant in their own domain; Gints is a creative genius, but he would be nowhere without a competent producer.

You’re not yet fed up answering questions about FLOW all the time?

Rietuma: Not at all! This will probably be the first and last Oscar in my career, and a great success for the entire national industry. Now I’m especially curious about the final box office numbers…