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' Director Gints Zilbalodis Hopes Latvia's Animated Feature Oscar Win Inspires "Independent Animation Filmmakers Around The World"

In a big win that underscored the growing prominence of indepedent animation, Gints Zibalodis’ “Flow,” the moving dialog-free tale of a solitary cat’s journey as it learns to survive after a great flood – that was made with open-source software Blender for just $3.