Latvia is arriving at the imminent Berlinale (12-22 February) with a notably coherent industry profile, spanning high-profile animation, children’s series with international reach and a commercially proven historical drama making its market debut at the European Film Market (EFM, 12-18 February). Across the Berlinale Co-Production Market, EFM Animation Days and the market screenings, Latvian projects train the spotlight on a national cinema that is increasingly comfortable operating across artistic, industrial and audience-driven registers.

One of the most distinctive Latvian presences this year is the Berlinale Co-Production Market entry Karmic Knot, the upcoming feature-length animation by Latvian-born, New York-based filmmaker Signe Baumane. The film marks Baumane’s third animated feature and constitutes the concluding chapter of a trilogy inspired by her family’s lived experience across decades of Latvian history. Set before, during and after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the pic blends comedy, drama and elements of horror to trace the story of a close-knit family forced to trade dreams for survival amid political violence and social disintegration. The project follows Rocks in My Pockets [+lee también:
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Currently in production at Baumane’s independent studio in New York, Karmic Knot is being developed as a European co-production with Latvia’s Studio Locomotive and Germany’s Fabian&Fred, continuing the helmer’s long-standing practice of working with animation teams on both sides of the Atlantic. “We’re working very intensively. The sets are coming together, and we are filming. There is a huge amount of work,” Baumane explains. She notes that while the script is now locked, she deliberately avoids storyboards: “I don’t work with one, because it locks you into a kind of creative prison. I want to keep the creative process like an open door.”

For Baumane, independence is not only an artistic position, but also an industrial one. Her studio model allows her to employ animators across territories while retaining creative control, demonstrating that ambitious feature-length animation can be produced outside of traditional studio systems. The Berlinale Co-Production Market selection sees Karmic Knot at a key financing and partnership stage, as European animation continues to diversify beyond conventional family fare.

Meanwhile, Latvia’s animation presence extends into series development with Hello, Oscar!, selected for the CEE Animation-curated programme at EFM Animation Days (12-14 February). The project highlights a growing Baltic cross-border dynamic within children’s animation. Directed by Edmunds Jansons and produced by Sabīne Andersone, of Riga-based studio Atom Art, Hello, Oscar! is an 8×7-minute animated show aimed at children aged 5-8. The series is based on Oscar and the Things by Estonian writer Andrus Kivirähk, lending the project a distinctly regional Baltic identity.

Combining 2D and 3D animation, it follows seven-year-old Oscar, who spends the summer at his grandmother’s countryside home and discovers he can communicate with household objects after carving himself a wooden toy phone. Each object carries its own anxieties and desires, offering a gentle framework through which the series explores empathy, emotional literacy and intergenerational connection.

Atom Art, active for over two decades, has built up a reputation for balancing children’s animation with internationally recognised auteur projects, while Jansons is widely regarded as one of Latvia’s leading animation voices across shorts, features and series. The inclusion of Hello, Oscar! within the Animation Days programme underscores the country’s ever-expanding role in European children’s content, particularly projects that foreground emotional nuance and cultural specificity alongside international appeal.

Completing Latvia’s Berlinale profile is the market premiere of Escape Net, the latest feature by Dzintars Dreibergs, which is being presented at the EFM following exceptional domestic success. Within just two months of release, the film became the third-most-watched Latvian film of the past 30 years.

Dreibergs previously topped national box-office charts with Blizzard of Souls [+lee también:
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While rooted in sport, Escape Net frames basketball as a form of cultural resistance, one of the few arenas in which small nations could assert identity under oppressive rule. “This is a story about resisting fear, about not giving up and about outsmarting the Soviet system – inspiring others and strengthening belief in oneself,” Dreibergs explains, emphasising the movie’s broader historical and emotional resonance. “The birth of TTT, and the courage of Dzidra Karamiševa and many others shaped our national spirit and helped maintain hope until Latvia regained its independence.”

The production has received 13 nominations for Latvia’s national film awards, Lielais Kristaps (see the news), including Best Feature Film, Best Actress for Budovska and Best Cinematography for Valdis Celmiņš, whose immersive approach places the camera directly on the court, rather than observing from the sidelines.

Its international sales are being handled by Spain’s Begin Again Films, whose co-CEO, Gloria Bretones, describes Escape Net as “a deeply moving film with a universal story that resonates beyond cultural borders. The strong response it has received in Latvia gives us confidence in its ability to travel internationally, as at its core, it is driven by emotions and human experiences that audiences everywhere can relate to,” she sums up.