Flow,″ a wordless cat parable, has won the Oscar for animated feature at Sunday’s 97th Academy Awards. Latvian filmmaker Gints Zilbalodis used Blender, a free, open-source graphics software tool using

Independent film “Flow” won the award for best animated feature at the 2025 Oscars on Sunday night, securing the first Academy Award for Latvia.

“This is the first time a film from Latvia has ever been nominated,” Zilbalodis told the Los Angeles audience. “So it really means a lot to us. We are very inspired and we hope to be back soon.

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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.

Gints Zilbalodis tale about a cat in a flooded world missed out on the Oscar for Best International Feature Film but still became Latvia's first Oscar win. And it was surely also the first Oscar winner to be made entirely in the free 3D modelling software Blender, cementing the open-source program's place among the best animation software.

“This is the first time a film from Latvia has ever been nominated,” Zilbalodis told the Los Angeles audience. “So it really means a lot to us. We are very inspired and we hope to be back soon.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — “Flow,″ a wordless cat ... “This is the first time a film from Latvia has ever been nominated. So it really means a lot to us. We are very inspired and we hope to ...

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.