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,

Flow,” a wordless cat parable that became the first Latvian film to win an Academy Award, prompted a sleepless night for Latvians celebrating the historic accolade

The 97th Academy Awards already have an upset win. “Flow,” the wordless Latvian film won best animated film, a surprise victory over DreamWorks Animations' “The Wild Robot.” The win for “Flow,” an ecological parable about a cat in a flooded 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.

Item 1 of 3 Gints Zilbalodis, Matiss Kaza, Ron Dyens and Gregory Zalcman win the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film for "Flow", as they stand near Andrew Garfield and Goldie Haw

The wordless film follows animals forging an unlikely friendship as they fight to survive a natural disaster. But scary flood scenes and existential themes may be a bit much for the youngest viewers.