Ensemble drama Crash has pulled off a major upset, winning the best picture award at the 78th Annual Academy Awards in Hollywood, derailing favourite Brokeback Mountain.
Nevertheless, Brokeback Mountain's director, Taiwanese Ang Lee, became the first Asian to win the best director award for the picture.
Crash had gained increasing favour in the days leading up to the awards, despite Brokeback having garnered most of the other key Hollywood honours in the lead-up to the Oscars.
The best picture-winning film, which was made outside the studio system on a low budget, explores racial prejudice among a range of inter-connected characters, and was nominated for six Oscars, winning three, for film editing and best original screenplay.
Philip Seymour Hoffman took out the best actor award for his portrayal of American literary great Truman Capote in Capote, and Reese Witherspoon won best actress.
Hoffman beat Australian Heath Ledger, nominated for his role in the gay cowboy film Brokeback Mountain, after also winning major awards in the lead-up to the Oscars, including a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors' Guild honour.
Witherspoon played June Carter Cash in Walk the Line, a biopic of country singer Johnny Cash.
Her win consolidates her spot as one of Hollywood's most bankable stars.
Earlier, George Clooney won the best supporting actor Oscar for his performance in Good Night, and Good Luck, and Rachel Weisz won best supporting actress for her role in The Constant Gardener.
Best picture upset
Usually, the same film wins both the best director and the best film awards.
Brokeback Mountain, which tells the story of cowboys in love, was nominated for eight awards, and was the front-runner in the best picture category.
However Crash had made an 11th hour challenge, and awards experts said a so-called 'gay fatigue' among Oscar voters may have contributed to its win.
Capote and Transamerica, both up for various Oscars, also dealt with gay themes.
The best picture line-up was dominated by daring, character-driven stories including Good Night, and Good Luck, the story of newscaster Edward R Murrow and the Stephen Spielberg's assassination thriller Munich.
The nominations were heralded as an artistic triumph in the awards’ nomination stakes despite the films having little box-office clout.
"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.
Other winners include:
- Special effects
King Kong - Animated feature
Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit - Cinematography
Dion Beebe for Memoirs of a Geisha - Foreign Language Film
Tsotsi, from South Africa - Adapted Screenplay
Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana, Brokeback Mountain - Original Screenplay
Paul Haggis and Bobby Moresco, Crash. - Art Direction
Memoirs of a Geisha - Sound Mixing
King Kong - Sound Editing
King Kong - Original Score
Gustavo Santaolalla, Brokeback Mountain - Original Song
Jordan Houston, Cedric Coleman and Paul Beauregard: It's Hard out Here for a Pimp, Hustle & Flow - 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