Gritty race relations drama Crash pulled a stunning upset at the Oscars on Sunday, winning the best film award over highly favored gay romance Brokeback Mountain in a night heavy with political messages.
Philip Seymour Hoffman was named best actor playing homosexual writer Truman Capote in Capote, while Hollywood sweetheart Reese Witherspoon's performance as country singer June Carter in the Johnny Cash biographical film, Walk the Line, earned her the best actress Oscar.
Crash, which covers a 36-hour period in Los Angeles as the lives of people of many races collide in a way that highlights bigotry, was a close second to Brokeback in Oscar handicapping. Backstage, Crash writer/director Paul Haggis said he was "shocked, shocked" with the victory.
"We're still trying to figure out if we got this," he said, clutching his golden trophy in his hand. "None of us expected it. You hope, but we had a tiny picture ... this was a year when Hollywood rewarded rule breakers."
Overall, the movie won three awards including film editing and best original screenplay for Haggis and co-writer Bobby Moresco.
Brokeback screenwriter Larry McMurtry told reporters backstage he believed that Crash's setting in Los Angeles helped it because many of the 6,000 members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences live in the city.
"Americans don't want cowboys to be gay," McMurtry said.
Fighting back tears when accepting her award, Witherspoon thanked her family, husband actor Ryan Phillippe, and told their young children -- via the TV -- they should be in bed.
"People used to ask June [Carter] how she was doin' and she used to say, `I'm just trying to matter,'" Witherspoon said. "I know what she means, you know, I'm just trying to matter and live a good life and make work that means something to somebody. You have all made me feel that I might have accomplished that tonight with this honor."
Crash and Brokeback faced three rivals for the best film Oscar: George Clooney's Good Night, and Good Luck, Steven Spielberg's Munich, and Capote.
Munich and Good Night failed to win any Oscars, but Good Night mastermind Clooney, who also directed and co-wrote the film, did win an Oscar for best supporting actor in his turn as a world-weary CIA agent in the oil industry drama Syriana.
British actress Rachel Weisz won the best supporting actress award for playing a social activist who is murdered for her beliefs in thriller The Constant Gardener.
A range of films won other trophies. Japanese saga Memoirs of a Geisha was given three Oscars for costume design, art direction and cinematography.
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe won for best makeup. It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp from Hustle and Flow was named best original song.
In another surprise, South African film Tsotsi, was named best foreign-language movie over favorite Paradise Now.
Following the plots of many of its message-themed movies, Oscar took a decidedly political tone with winners noting causes -- and show host Jon Stewart making wisecracks.
"We are a little bit out-of-touch in Hollywood," Clooney said. "I think that's probably a good thing. We are the ones who talked about AIDS when it was only being
whispered ... We talked about civil rights ... I'm proud to be part of this Academy, proud to be part of this community."
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