‘Crash’ pulls off Oscar upset for best picture

? “Crash” pulled off one of the biggest upsets in Academy Awards history, winning best picture Sunday over the front-runner “Brokeback Mountain.”

“Crash,” featuring a huge cast in crisscrossing story lines over a chaotic 36-hour period in Los Angeles, rode a late surge of praise that lifted it past the cowboy romance “Brokeback Mountain,” a film that had won most other key Hollywood honors.

“We are humbled by the other nominees in this category. You have made this year one of the most breathtaking and stunning maverick years in American cinema,” said “Crash” producer Cathy Schulman.

She was commenting on a year that saw the box office sinking, provocative independent films dominating big studio fare and a tiny-budgeted ensemble drama from outside Hollywood taking first prize.

Lead-acting Oscars went to Philip Seymour Hoffman as author Truman Capote in “Capote” and Reese Witherspoon as country singer June Carter in “Walk the Line,” while corporate thrillers earned supporting-performer Oscars for George Clooney in “Syriana” and Rachel Weisz in “The Constant Gardener.”

“Brokeback Mountain” filmmaker Ang Lee did win the best-director prize for the tale of two old sheepherding pals who carry on a love affair they conceal from their families for years.

Lee, whose martial-arts epic “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” won the foreign-language Oscar five years ago, became the first Asian filmmaker to win Hollywood’s main filmmaking honor.

Front-runners usually prevail, but there have been some notable dark-horse winners at past Oscars. Underdogs that came away with best picture include “An American in Paris” (over “A Place in the Sun” and “A Streetcar Named Desire”); “The Greatest Show on Earth” (over “High Noon”) and “Chariots of Fire” (over “Reds” and “On Golden Pond”).

Sharing the wealth

Six different films split the top six Oscars.

“Brokeback Mountain” won two others – adapted screenplay for Larry McMurtry (“Lonesome Dove”) and Diana Ossana and musical score for Gustavo Santaolalla.

“Crash” also won for the original screenplay by the film’s director, Paul Haggis, and Bobby Moresco.

In a year of challenging films at the Oscars, “Crash” was one of the fiercest, a portrait of simmering racial and cultural tension among blacks, whites, Hispanics, Asians and Arabs.

Complete list of 78th annual Academy Award winners

Best Picture: “Crash.”
Actor: Philip Seymour Hoffman, “Capote.”
Actress: Reese Witherspoon, “Walk the Line.”
Supporting Actor: George Clooney, “Syriana.”
Supporting Actress: Rachel Weisz, “The Constant Gardener.”
Director: Ang Lee, “Brokeback Mountain.”
Foreign Film: “Tsotsi,” South Africa.
Adapted Screenplay: Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana, “Brokeback Mountain.”
Original Screenplay: Paul Haggis and Bobby Moresco, “Crash.”
Animated Feature Film: “Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.”
Art Direction: “Memoirs of a Geisha.”
Cinematography: “Memoirs of a Geisha.”
Sound Mixing: “King Kong.”
Sound Editing: “King Kong.”
Original Score: “Brokeback Mountain,” Gustavo Santaolalla.
Original Song: “It’s Hard out Here for a Pimp” from “Hustle & Flow,” Jordan Houston, Cedric Coleman and Paul Beauregard.
Costume: “Memoirs of a Geisha.”
Documentary Feature: “March of the Penguins.”
Documentary (short subject): “A Note of Triumph: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin.”
Film Editing: “Crash.”
Makeup: “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.”
Animated Short Film: “The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation.”
Live Action Short Film: “Six Shooter.”
Visual Effects: “King Kong.”
Oscar winners previously announced this year:
Honorary Academy Award (Oscar statuette): Robert Altman.
The Gordon E. Sawyer award for technical achievement (Oscar statuette): Gary Demos.

The other best-picture nominees emerged either out of Hollywood studios or their art-house affiliates. But “Crash” was a true Oscar rarity, shot outside the system on a $6.5 million budget, then acquired by independent distributor Lionsgate at the 2004 Toronto International Film Festival, where the film premiered.

“Crash” became a solid box-office hit, grossing $55 million domestically.

The large cast of “Crash” includes supporting-actor nominee Matt Dillon, Don Cheadle, Sandra Bullock, Brendan Fraser, Terrence Howard, Thandie Newton, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Jennifer Esposito and Ryan Phillippe.

Witherspoon won a close race over Felicity Huffman in a gender-bending performance as a transsexual in “Transamerica.”

“Oh, my goodness I never thought I’d be here in my whole life growing up in Tennessee,” said Witherspoon, who like co-star Joaquin Phoenix as Carter’s soul mate, country legend Johnny Cash, handled her own singing in “Walk the Line.”

Hoffman’s performance nimbly straddles the magnetic qualities of raconteur Capote and the effete, off-putting egoism of the author.

“Wow, I’m in a category with some great, great, great actors, fantastic actors, and I’m overwhelmed. Really overwhelmed,” said Hoffman, who asked the Oscar audience to congratulate his mother for bringing up four children alone.

“We’re at the party, mom,” Hoffman said. “Be proud, mom, because I’m proud of you.”

Clooney’s win capped a remarkable year, during which he made Oscar history by becoming the first person nominated for acting in one movie and directing another.

Along with performing in “Syriana,” Clooney directed the Edward R. Murrow tale “Good Night, and Good Luck,” which earned him directing and writing nominations and was among the best-picture contenders.

In “The Constant Gardener,” adapted from John le Carre’s novel, Weisz played a humanitarian-aid worker whose fearless efforts against questionable pharmaceutical practices makes her a target for government and corporate interests in Africa.

Weisz thanked co-star Ralph Fiennes and director Fernando Meirelles, “and of course, John le Carre, who wrote this unflinching, angry story. And he really paid tribute to the people who are willing to risk their own lives to fight injustice. They’re greater men and women than I.”

Hip-hop song tops

The raucous hip-hop tune “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp” from “Hustle & Flow,” whose expletive-laden lyrics had to be toned down for performance at the Oscars, won the prize for best song. The song was written by the rap group Three 6 Mafia, aka Jordan Houston, Cedric Coleman and Paul Beauregard.

Featuring dancers dressed as hookers and pimps gyrating on stage, the song’s performance stood in sharp contrast to the other nominated tunes and the general stateliness of the Oscars.

“You know what? I think it just got a little easier out here for a pimp,” joked Oscar host Jon Stewart.