Since its premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, Gints Zilbalodis’ Oscar-winning animation Flow has taken the world by storm, with audiences falling in love with its cute troop of intrepid animals navigating a world transformed by climate change. On a boat captained by a super chill capybara, there’s an excitable dog, a snippy secretarybird and a trinket-loving lemur – but the star of the show is a little grey cat with a bold sense of adventure. Zilbalodis’ decision to depict the animals’ behaviour and movement realistically means that every meow, purr and hiss is instantly recognisable to cat owners and cat lovers – and Flow follows in a rich tradition of films about cats, both animated and live-action.
While dogs might have long held the crown as man’s best friend, cats are particularly beloved by filmmakers, from Agnès Varda to Stanley Kubrick – and who are we to argue with cinematic purrfection? But with kitties bewitching us on screen since the days of Thomas Edison (the 1894 23-second short, Boxing Cats, was filmed at his studio), there’s a veritable clowder of cinematic cats of all shapes, sizes and breeds to discover. Not to worry though; we’re here to guide you through a short history of cats in films.
Pyewacket – Bell, Book and Candle (1958)
There’s long been an association between cats and witches – and Richard Quine’s supernatural romantic comedy is definitely partly responsible, as it helped inspire future iconic TV properties like Bewitched and Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Pyewacket is the Siamese familiar of Kim Novak’s Gillian Holroyd, a young witch who becomes infatuated with her handsome neighbour Shep Henderson (James Stewart). After casting a spell on him with Pyewacket’s help, Gillian is torn between her magical life and the possibility of true love. The image of Novak posing with Pyewacket has become one of the most iconic in her career, to the extent the pair were shot for the cover of Life magazine to celebrate the film’s release. Without Pyewacket, there’s no Thackeray Binx or Salem Saberhagen.
Cat – Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)
‘Poor slob! Poor slob without a name!’ cries Audrey Hepburn’s Holly Golightly in Blake Edwards’ classic romance, referring to the ginger mackerel tabby who shares her penthouse. While the cat serves as a handy metaphor for Holly’s own desire for freedom, in real life, he was a lauded star in his own right. Orangey was dubbed ‘the meanest cat in Hollywood’ for his tendency to scratch and bite his co-stars, but he kept finding work because he was unusually good at sitting still for hours on end (when he was in a good mood). Despite persistent rumours that Orangey was actually one of a number of lookalike cats who shared roles, he’s still among the most famous feline film stars ever to prowl the backlots of Hollywood.
Fritz – Fritz the Cat (1972)
Strutting into cinemas just two years after Disney’s The Aristocats endeared audiences to a family of Parisien felines caught up in a catnapping plot, Ralph Bakshi’s black comedy about an anthropomorphic grey cat living down and dirty in New York City paved the way for the likes of Family Guy, South Park and Beavis and Butt-Head – which might give you an idea about the content here. Sex, drugs, violence, communism – Fritz the Cat has it all, and was the first animated film to receive an X rating upon its release, proving that animated cats don’t always have to be cute and cuddly. This didn’t stop the film becoming a critical and commercial smash – and as Bakshi reflected many years later, ‘Now they do as much on The Simpsons as I got an X rating for Fritz the Cat.’
Jones – Alien (1979)
There’s a long history of ships taking on a feline crew member to keep the rat population at bay (they probably provided a morale boost too), so it makes sense that the Nostromo in Ridley Scott’s Alien would have Jones aboard for pest-control duties. Unfortunately, the cat proves to be a bit of a liability, accidentally leading Brett (Harry Dean Stanton) to his death while he’s trying to coax Jones out of harm’s way. But Ripley proved a loyal crewmate, ensuring the cat escapes the xenomorph carnage unharmed – though, wisely, at the beginning of Aliens (1986), she leaves him safely on planet Earth.
Jiji – Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989)
Technically this list could be composed entirely of Studio Ghibli films, as the legendary Hayao Miyazaki is an avowed cat lover who features felines in many of his films – notably Whisper of the Heart (1995) and The Cat Returns (2002). But no Ghibli cat has stolen the show like Jiji, the loyal familiar of young witch Kiki, who accompanies her as she leaves home to seek her fortune running a delivery service. The smart, sarcastic Jiji is certainly one cool cat, and was even voiced by the legendary comedian Phil Hartman in the American dub, adding to his sourpuss attitude – but he has an unbreakable bond with his best friend, like all cats do.
Ulysses – Inside Llewyn Davis (2014)
The Coen Brothers’ 2014 drama set in the 1960s New York folk scene made a star of Oscar Isaac – and one ginger cat (or well, three, since Tigger, Jerry and Daryl shared the role). Much like the feline lookalike in Robert Altman’s sublime neo-noir The Long Goodbye (1973), Ulysses serves as the protagonist’s driving factor, as Llewyn becomes obsessed with making sure he gets the wandering cat back to his owners. Although Inside Llewyn Davis missed out on the Palme d’Or at that year’s Cannes Film Festival, Ulysses certainly won the Palme d’Awww.
The Cats of Istanbul – Kedi (2016)
Ceyda Torun’s documentary follows the real lives of several cats who live on the streets of Istanbul, and the people who care for them. It’s well known that Turkey is a country of cat lovers, and the many, many street cats who roam free are a huge tourist attraction in the country’s capital, cared for communally by the local community. In Kedi, seven cats get their time to shine (Sarı, Duman, Bengü, Aslan Parçası, Gamız, Psikpat and Deniz), but the film is as much about how the cats enrich the lives of the people around them as the animals themselves.
Nini – Faces Places (2017)
Agnès Varda loved cats so much she made hers the face of her production company Ciné Tamaris, and they featured frequently in her films, particularly Cléo from 5 to 7, where the protagonist is shown to live in a penthouse with many feline friends. Her own cat, Nini, had a scene-stealing role in Faces Places (2018), and the image of her perched on Varda’s shoulder became the film’s most enduring. It’s no surprise that Varda found kinship with cats, possessing the same poise, curiosity and independence as them. In a chance meeting with filmmaking student Britt Faulkner in 2012, Varda remarked, ‘This is all you need in life: a computer, a camera, and a cat.’ Truer words have never been spoken.
Cat – Flow (2025)
We’d be remiss to not mention Flow’s lead, whose vocals were provided by Miut, the ginger tabby cat belonging to the film’s sound designer Gurwal Coïc-Gallas. The unnamed kitty starts the film lives in a world seemingly abandoned by humans, who once built giant cat statues in honour of their feline friends, which the cat uses as their own personal playground. When a sudden tsunami floods the land, the independent feline must learn to work together with a rag-tag crew of similarly adrift creatures to survive the harsh change in circumstances. Gints Zibalodis and the Flow team spent hours watching cat videos and observing feline behaviour to get their lead just right, and judging by the reaction of cat audiences around the world, they did a pretty great job.
WATCH FLOW IN CINEMAS FROM 21 MARCH
