'It was held against us': How Crash pulled off the most shocking win in Oscars history

Twenty years ago, the race-relations drama beat Brokeback Mountain to win best picture, in perhaps the awards' most controversial decision ever. People including the film's co-writer reflect on what happened.

On 5 March 2006, Paul Haggis's Crash became the 78th film to win best picture at the Academy Awards, a decision so shocking that Jack Nicholson, the actor who announced the winner, mouthed "woah" after reading out its name. 

The ensemble drama about race and racism in Los Angeles proved a controversial choice: it was an underdog that beat favourite Brokeback Mountain, a breakthrough film for gay representation, to the top honour. In the 20 years since, the film and its victory continue to be pulled apart by online discourse. So, how did a low-budget indie film secure best picture, and was it really the worst decision in Oscars history?

The film was penned 10 years after the infamous Rodney King incident, in which a young African-American man in Los Angeles became a victim of police brutality, a trigger point for mass riots across the city. "Paul felt people thought the problem of racism was over and he wanted to speak to that," Crash co-writer and producer Bobby Moresco tells the BBC, noting that Haggis was also inspired by his own experience of being mugged by two black teenagers outside a Blockbuster video store: "They ran off with the videos and maybe some money he gave them, but in thinking about those two characters, he thought, well, who are they, and what are the other elements of their life? Where do those two guys go?"

In January 2004, the film wrapped production after a 32-day shoot. Given its relatively tiny $6.5m budget, it boasted an impressive cast including Don Cheadle, Sandra Bullock, Thandiwe Newton, Brendan Fraser, and Matt Dillon, among others. In September, the film received a standing ovation at its world premiere at the 2004 Toronto International Film Festival. Lionsgate acquired the film for $3m on the very same day. "It's a terrific movie, but it's not an obvious awards contender," said Tom Ortenberg, Lionsgate's then president of theatrical films. "It's a word-of-mouth movie."

The race to the prize

On 6 May 2005, Crash came out in 1,864 North American theatres, earning $9m over the opening weekend, $55m domestically, and a worldwide total of $98.4m – a strong haul, given its budget. Lionsgate commenced the Oscars strategy by piggybacking on the film's home entertainment campaign with awards voters. "They had this brilliant idea to go all out on DVDs right before the end of the year, and remind everybody of this movie," says Moresco. After the film was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award for outstanding performance by a cast, Lionsgate took the unusual step of sending out over 100,000 DVDs in paper sleeves directly to all members of the guild. They recognised the crossover potential of votes from SAG members who were also voters in the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences, of which actors make up the largest branch.

Sending a copy to Oprah Winfrey also proved a winning move. She encouraged her talk show audience (around nine million viewers per day during her 2004-2005 season) to seek out the film and shared her own Crash moment. Winfrey claimed that she was denied entry to a Hermes store in Paris because of racial profiling. "Suddenly we were in the culture," says Moresco, and the phrase "Crash moment" entered the vernacular with an identifiable connection to the film.

Black organisations like the African-American Film Critics' Association, NAACP Image Awards and Black Reel Awards embraced the film, selecting it as their best film of the year, but when it came to more white, mainstream awards, Brokeback Mountain was beating them to the post.

However, this wasn't a simple David v Goliath story. Ang Lee's independent film, based on an Annie Proulx short story and starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger as star-crossed cowboys, was a groundbreaking moment for LGBTQ representation and acceptance. It was the most critically acclaimed film of the year, grossing over $178m globally against a $14m budget, and even luring audiences in conservative "red states" where the idea of a "gay cowboy romance" might not have been welcomed. It won best picture at the Baftas, Golden Globes, Critics' Choice Awards, Independent Spirit Awards, Producers Guild of America, as well as various critics' associations.

Still, Crash secured several accolades, including an Independent Spirit Award for best first feature; the SAG Award for outstanding performance by a........

© BBC