What struck me most about Flow was how quiet it could be — how much wonder and emotion it created without ever raising its voice. The story feels adventurous and absorbing, but also unexpectedly tender — its animals feel vulnerable, close, and completely alive.
If that’s what you loved too, these nine films like Flow are a good place to go next. From indie and festival animation to distinctive auteur films, they share its quiet storytelling, emotional animal characters, and gentle sense of adventure through strange, beautiful worlds.
01
These films are very quiet. Not empty — just unhurried, a little private, as if they do not want to raise their voice. You stay with weather, faces, rooms, and the feeling that the story is happening close to you.
Jean-François Laguionie · 2024 · France, Luxembourg · 75 min
In post-war France, a boy watches his father build a boat in the family garden and begins to imagine a wider life beyond their home.
Quiet, sun-faded and nostalgic, unfolding like a remembered childhood where family distance, craft and imagination gently share the same space.
Olivier Clert · 2026 · France · 89 min
Rejected by the inhabitants of her isolated island village, a gifted young girl follows an invisible companion while searching for the source of her mysterious powers.
Gentle, windswept and mysterious, combining childlike wonder, coastal melancholy and a warm story about memory, belonging and identity.
Keiichi Hara · 2015 · Japan · 93 min
A portrait of artist O-Ei, daughter of Hokusai, moving through art, family, Edo life and quiet emotional tensions.
Subtle and textured, with a mix of quiet determination and familial tension, punctuated by moments of humor and vibrant artistry.
02
The animals in these films are characters rather than sidekicks. They form attachments, get scared, make choices, and sometimes hurt each other. Like in Flow, you do not need them to speak to take their inner lives seriously.
Anca Damian · 2019 · Romania, France, Belgium · 92 min
A poetic story of a small dog looking back on the humans she loved across several lives and homes.
Colorful, tender, and bittersweet, with a mix of lighthearted moments and deeper emotional undercurrents.
Lee Dae-hee · 2012 · South Korea · 78 min
A mackerel trapped in a restaurant aquarium tries to break free before becoming a meal.
Tense and claustrophobic, with cold blues and tight aquarium close-ups trapping a struggling mackerel.
Alberto Vázquez, Pedro Rivero · 2015 · Spain · 76 min
On a polluted island after an industrial disaster, a group of children try to escape while Birdboy hides from the world around him.
Dark and oppressive, with a slow, heavy pace and a stark contrast between the harsh environment and fleeting moments of warmth.
03
Part of the pleasure of Flow is simply moving through its world and seeing what comes next. These films have that same sense of discovery: new places, changing landscapes, small dangers, and the feeling that the journey itself matters as much as the destination.
Alê Abreu · 2013 · Brazil · 80 min
A mostly wordless journey of a boy through a dazzling, musical and politically charged world.
Vibrant and chaotic, with a mix of humor and melancholy, shifting between lively animation and moments of stark social commentary.
Benoît Chieux · 2023 · France, Belgium · 80 min
Two sisters, Juliette and Carmen, find a passage into the world of their favorite picture book. Turned into cats and separated, they must reach Sirocco, who controls the wind, before they can go home.
Bright, talkative and slightly strange, with a handmade fantasy world that keeps opening into new rooms and skies.
Rémi Chayé · 2015 · France, Denmark · 81 min
A young aristocratic girl sets out on a journey to the Arctic to find out what happened to her grandfather.
Cold and adventurous, with a steady pace that balances moments of tension and warmth against a backdrop of stark, icy landscapes.
If films like Flow feel surprisingly hard to come across, I know the feeling. That’s why I built Resonale: to collect independent and festival animation that is a little harder to find — and make it easier to discover what to watch next.
Explore more animation in Resonale
