Wrapping up another cinematic award season, it was a triumphant celebration of indie and international film producers at the 97th Academy Awards last night—especially in the Best Animated Feature category. 

This year’s race was a close one between kidlit adaptation The Wild Robot (DreamWorks Animation) and the Latvian-Belgian-French co-pro Flow (Dream Well, Sacrebleu Productions and Take Five), which had traded off other key wins on the awards circuit heading into the Oscars. Flow won the Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature, while The Wild Robot came out on top at the Annies. 

But Flow emerged victorious last night, scoring Latvia’s first-ever Oscar and marking a rare indie win in a category that has typically been dominated by industry titans such as Disney, Sony, DreamWorks and Studio Ghibli since it was established in 2002. (Also nominated this year were Pixar’s Inside Out 2, Aardman Animations’ Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl and Memoir of a Snail, an adult-skewing stop-motion pic from Australia’s Arenamedia.)

With a budget of just US$3.6 million, Flow wordlessly tells the story of a black cat who joins forces with several other animals to steer a boat through a post-apocalyptic world that’s been transformed by a massive flood. It was produced using the free open-source software Blender—which received a shoutout in director Gints Zilbalodis’ winning speech—and has generated more than US$20 million in ticket sales so far. “I’m really moved by the warm reception our film has had, and I hope that [this] will open doors to independent animation filmmakers around the world,” said Zilbalodis on stage.

Both Flow and The Wild Robot were also nominated in other categories. Flow was up for Best International Feature (which was won by the Brazilian drama I’m Still Here), while The Wild Robot received nods for Best Original Score and Best Sound, but was beat out by The Brutalist and Dune: Part Two, respectively.

On the live-action front, Universal’s PG-rated musical hit Wicked—which scored 10 nominations this year—walked home with two trophies: one for Best Production Design and the other for Best Costume Design. 

Flow‘s award season run has already helped drive more interest in Latvia as an animation hub to keep an eye on. Taking place in Bordeaux this week, Cartoon Movie is spotlighting the country in its program, with pitches for Born in the Jungle (Atom Art, Letko, Hausboot), The Northern Star (Studija Kokles, Yabunousagi) and Karmic Knot (Studio Locomotive, My Marriage Project) lined up. And last week, Latvia’s government announced its intention to invest US$1 million in regional animated film competitions.