Urban drama 'Crash' was the major surprise winner at the 78th Annual Academy Awards in Hollywood last night, beating favourite 'Brokeback Mountain' to the Best Picture Oscar.
As expected, 'Brokeback Mountain's director, Ang Lee, won the Best Director Oscar.
'Crash's director Paul Haggis and co-writer Bobby Moresco won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar while Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana won Best Adapted Screenplay for 'Brokeback Mountain'.
'Brokeback Mountain' composer Gustavo Santaolalla won the Oscar for Best Original Score while Hughes Winborne won the Best Editing Oscar for his work on 'Crash'.
In the acting categories it was a night for the bookies' favourites with Philip Seymour Hoffman and Reese Witherspoon winning Best Actor and Best Actress for 'Capote' and 'Walk the Line' respectively.
George Clooney was named Best Supporting Actor for 'Syriana' while Rachel Weisz won Best Supporting Actress for 'The Constant Gardener'.
'Tsotsi' was named Best Foreign Language Film with 'March of the Penguins' winning the award for Best Documentary Feature.
'Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit' won Best Animated Feature.
The playwright Martin McDonagh - best known for his plays about Ireland - won Best Live Action Short Film for the black comedy 'Six Shooter' which he wrote and directed.
In the technical categories 'Memoirs of a Geisha' and 'King Kong' won three awards each.
'Memoirs of a Geisha' took the Oscars for Cinematography, Art Direction and Costume Design; 'King Kong' won Oscars for Visual Effects, Sound Mixing and Sound Editing.
'A Note of Triumph: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin' was named Best Documentary Short while 'The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation' won Best Animated Short Film.
'The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe' won the Best Makeup Oscar while 'It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp' from 'Hustle & Flow' was named Best Original Song.
Legendary film director Robert Altman was the recipient of an Honorary Award for, according to the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, "a career that has repeatedly reinvented the art form and inspired filmmakers and audiences alike."
