By CHEYANNE MUMPHREY, Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — “Flow,″ a wordless cat parable, won the Oscar for animated feature at Sunday’s 97th Academy Awards. The win gives Latvian filmmaker Gints Zilbalodis his first Academy Award.

“Flow” was made with Blender, a free, open-source graphics software tool using computer generated animation. The result is a dreamy aesthetic paired with a peaceful, yet post-apocalyptic, fable about a black cat, dog, capybara, ring-tailed lemur and secretary bird trying to survive a catastrophic flood. The film has no dialogue and forces viewers to be mesmerized by the unlikely relationship and understanding between the species trying to escape the rising waters.

It’s only Zilbalodis’ second animated film as a director.

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″Thank you to my mom and dad. Thank you to my cats and dogs. I’m really, moved by the warm reception our film has had. I hope this will open of doors to independent animation filmmakers around the world,” said Zilbalodis. “This is the first time a film from Latvia has ever been nominated. So it really means a lot to us. We are very inspired and we hope to be back soon.”

Zilbalodis’ unexpected Oscar contender — and now winner — has been welcomed with open arms this award season. The win Sunday adds to an already impressive resume for the new director, which includes a best animated feature win at the Golden Globe Awards and nominations from Critics Choice Awards, Annie Awards and British Academy Film Awards.

The success of the film is shared with producers Matīss Kaža, Ron Dyens and Gregory Zalcman. The Latvian, French and Belgian co-production was also nominated for best international feature film, and is the first Latvian film to be nominated at the Academy Awards.

The film beat another atmospheric story in “The Wild Robot,” as well as “Inside Out 2,” Disney’s highest-grossing movie last year, and Claymation films “Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl” and “Memoir of a Snail.”

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For more coverage of the Oscars, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/academy-awards.

Gophers women’s hockey coach Bud Frost said that there usually are no more than two times a season when he will elect not to have a film session with the team following a game.

Sunday morning was one of them.

Frost determined there would be little to gain by getting into the ugly details of the Gophers’ 5-4 double-overtime loss to Minnesota State Mankato on Saturday that forced a deciding Game 3 in the quarterfinals of the WCHA playoffs. Best to focus on the job at hand.

His instincts proved correct.

Gophers forward Natalie Mlynkova (No. 96) celebrates after scoring the game’s first goal in Minnesota’s 6-2 decisive Game 3 victory over Minnesota State-Mankato in the WCHA first round series at Ridder Arena on Sunday, March 2, 2025. (Brad Rempel / Gopher athletics)

A five-goal second period powered the fourth-ranked Gophers to a 6-2 win over the Mavericks at Ridder Arena. Abbey Murphy led the way with a pair of goals and an assist. The Gophers fourth-ranked (27-10-1) advance to the WCHA Final Faceoff in Duluth and will play No. 2 Ohio State on Friday afternoon.

Frost has talked all season about getting his team to play the game the right way, and Sunday was a prime example of what can happen when they do.

“Yeah, so let’s just do it all the time,” Frost said with a knowing grin. “But yes, that was it. We didn’t give up a lot of odd-man rushes, we were staying above pucks and we got pucks behind their ‘D’ a fair amount.

“Things like that enable you to play pretty well and win hockey games. I could tell right way that they were committed to playing the right way.”

While not suggesting that the Gophers took the sixth-place Mavericks lightly, the Gophers weren’t expecting to have a game to play on Sunday. But they didn’t let one disappointing performance turn into two.

“They came out ready to play (on Saturday), more than we did. So, that’s what happened,” Murphy said. “But I think we looked ourselves in the mirror and came out to play today.”

As one of the team leaders, Murphy took it upon herself to have a few extra words for the team before the game.

“Just tried to bring the energy up,” she said. “Stay loud, stay in their ears as much as possible. Just tried to get everyone excited. You have to be excited, it’s the playoffs, and a big game.”

The Gophers had the edge in play in the first period — outshooting the Mavericks 15-7 — and took a 1-0 lead into the second period. With the Gophers on a power play, Natalie Mlynkova buried a cross-crease pass from Murphy at 15:13 for her 15th goal of the season.

The Gophers broke the game open with three goals in the first half of the second period. Ava Lindsay scored her seventh of the season at 1:35. A shorthanded goal by Audrey Wethington gave the Gophers a 3-0 lead at 5:29.

Soon after, Peyton Hemp was stopped on an end-to-end rush, but Wethington grabbed the puck behind the extended goal like and tucked it in. Murphy’s first of the game followed at 7:14.

The Mavericks got on the board at 9:05, but the Gophers got the goal right back at 10:35. Hemp completed the second-period onslaught with her 15th goal of the season at 18:06.

Murphy’s pair of goals gave her 29 on the season and 99 for her career, giving her a chance to become the seventh Gophers women’s player to reach 100.

“It would be nice — as long as we keep winning,” Murphy said. “That’s all I really care about. I’ve had a lot of people say something about it to me, so it is really cool. But I’m here for the bigger picture.”

The Gophers know beating the No. 2 Buckeyes will be a difficult task, but they can point to a 3-1 win over the Buckeyes on January 31 — arguably their best game of the season— as to what can happen whey they “play the game the right way.”

And a 7-3 loss the following night when they don’t.

“We know what it takes,” Murphy said. “Our one game was really pretty, and the one on Saturday was not pretty. It’s about going back to our basics, getting pucks deep and doing what we do best.”

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By ELISE RYAN, Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Kieran Culkin won the Oscar for best supporting actor Sunday at the 97th Academy Awards, completing a sweep of the category that followed his dominance in television awards last season.

The award, for portraying the chaotic but endearing Benji in Jesse Eisenberg’s “A Real Pain,” marked his first win and nomination.

Culkin triumphed over nominees Guy Pearce for “The Brutalist,” Edward Norton for “A Complete Unknown,” Yura Borisov for “Anora” and his fellow “Succession” alum Jeremy Strong for “The Apprentice.” The category was one of few with a clear favorite ahead of this year’s ceremony, after Culkin picked up the Golden Globe, BAFTA, Independent Spirit Award, SAG Award and a slew of critics awards earlier this month.

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Written and directed by Eisenberg, “A Real Pain” follows cousins — played by Culkin and Eisenberg — on a trip through Poland for a Holocaust tour to honor their late grandmother. Culkin’s Benji is introduced as unfiltered but quick to connect. Eisenberg’s David is his rule-following, guarded foil. Oscillating between serious reflections on Jewish identity, generational trauma and mourning and the inherent comedy of mismatched relatives, Eisenberg’s script deftly navigates heavy themes with humor that lands because of Culkin’s ability to deliver it earnestly.

It wasn’t a sure bet that Culkin’s Benji would make it to screens. When production on the final season of “Succession” ran long, Culkin considered dropping out of the film to spend time with his family. Emma Stone, last year’s best actress Oscar winner whose company Fruit Tree produced the project, convinced him to stay on — by reassuring him that they could make it work without him, knowing that wasn’t necessarily true.

“She let me off the hook completely,” Culkin told The Associated Press of his ex-girlfriend. “And I think it was the moment I got off the phone that I was like ‘Oh (expletive), I’m doing this movie.’”

Culkin’s film debut came at age 7 in “Home Alone,” where he played the soda-slurping younger cousin of his older brother Macaulay Culkin’s Kevin McCallister. His first major award nomination was a Golden Globe nod for the 2002 film “Igby Goes Down.” But it was his turn as Roman Roy, on “Succession” nearly two decades later that brought Culkin widespread fandom and acclaim, including a Golden Globe and Emmy Award for the series’ final season.

A woman was taken at gunpoint in a carjacking Sunday afternoon in St. Paul and released a short while later.

Shortly before 1:30 p.m. officers were called to Herbert Street and Rose Avenue East on a report of a carjacking in which a woman was taken against her will along with the vehicle, according to Nikki Muehlhausen, public information officer with the St. Paul Police Department.

A woman was soon spotted driving the vehicle near 7th Street and Arcade Street.

At one point, a woman, believed to be the woman forced against her will to go with the carjackers, got out of the car. The stolen vehicle then accelerated away from squad cars that began a pursuit.

After a short pursuit, the car thief crashed into another vehicle at 2 p.m. at Maryland Avenue over the 35W bridge.

Police took a man and another woman, who was in the car at the time, into custody.  No one was injured, but the man is being treated at an area hospital for an unrelated condition.

The crime remains under investigation.

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