A surprise "Crash"

Mo, 06.03.2006, Constantin Xenakis

«Crash» surprises Oscar viewers prepared to see «Brokeback Mountain» take home the Best Film Oscar.

People watching the Academy Awards ceremony got a big surprise when «Crash», Paul Haggis' look at racial tension in L.A., took home the Best Film Oscar. It had been assumed that honor would go to «Brokeback Mountain». But the «gay shepherd» movie didn't go home empty handed, as Ang Lee won the Best Director statuette. Other winners include Best Actor Philip Seymour Hoffman for «Capote», Best Actress Reese Witherspoon for «Walk the Line», Best Supporting Actor George Clooney for «Syriana», and Best Supporting Actress Rachel Weisz for «The Constant Gardner». The Best Foreign Language Film went to South Africa's «Tsotsi», a moving film about a township hoodlum who ends up taking care of the baby whose mother he killed.