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When you think of award-winning movies, you might think of movies with flashy special effects, epic explosions, and big-name actors. But not every movie that wins an award has a multi-million dollar budget. Some wins are more controversial than others, but they all demonstrate one thing: you don’t necessarily need money to win awards. Take a look at these 15 low-budget movies that went on to win major awards.

1.  Moonlight (2016)

'Moonlight' cast and crew
Cast and crew of ‘Moonlight’ | Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Moonlight was filmed on a budget of just $1.5 million and went on to win the Oscar for Best Picture in 2016. And while that might seem like a lot of money, consider that La La Land, which we all thought was the real winner of the Best Picture Oscar for a hot two minutes, had a budget of $30 million. In fact, Moonlight‘s budget was less than a lot of indie films. Moonlight is the lowest budget movie to win an Oscar … so far.

Next: Eye of the (low-budget) tiger

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