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.

After a tense Oscar race in the Best Animated Feature category, Flow pulled ahead for the win at Sunday night’s ceremony. With their win, Flow beat out Inside Out 2, Memoir of a Snail, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl and The Wild Robot.

The independent film “Flow” won the best animated feature film Oscar on Sunday, securing the first Academy Award for Latvia and its Latvian director Gints Zilbalodis.