"Crash" won best picture over the expected favorite "Brokeback Mountain." Featuring an incredible cast in crisscrossing story lines, “Crash” displaced the cowboy romance "Brokeback Mountain," a film that had been awarded most other important Hollywood prizes.

Philip Seymour Hoffman won Best Actor as author Truman Capote in "Capote" and Reese Witherspoon as June Carter in "Walk the Line". Supporting-performer Oscars were for George Clooney in "Syriana" and Rachel Weisz in "The Constant Gardener."

Ang Lee, for "Brokeback Mountain", won the best-director award for the tale of two cowboys who carry on a love affair in secret for years. "Brokeback Mountain" won two other prizes: adapted screenplay for Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana, and musical score for Gustavo Santaolalla.

"Crash" also won for the original screenplay by Paul Haggis and Bobby Moresco. Because of the low budget for his film and the controversial topic dealt, Haggis said about these Oscars: "this is the year that Hollywood rewarded rule-breakers".