The “What Film Should Have Won The Oscar?” Poll has come to a close, and not surprisingly, Brokeback Mountain is the winner, with Crash coming in a distant second.

This is probably a preview for what will happen tomorrow when both films face off on DVD (‘Crash’ is being re-released as a 2-Disc Director’s Cut).

This poll marks the biggest voter turnout we’ve had since the launch of the site in December. (409 votes)

Here are the results:

Brokeback Mountain comes in first with 59% of the votes.

Crash is in second with 33%

Good Night, and Good Luck is a very distant third with 3% (14 Votes)

Munich is in fourth with 3% (13 Votes)

And Capote came in last with 1%

I currently find myself thoroughly disappointed at the state of movies today. I was on the phone with a friend of mine, and a commercial came on for some big budget flick that looked horrible, and I said “Wow. Because that’s not going to suck.” She responded, “Well, what movies don’t nowadays?” And that seems to be how most people feel about movies at the current time, which could explain the recent decline in movie theater attendance and box office receipts.

But when I thought about it, I realized that there actually were decent movies out. I loved Capote, Brokeback Mountain, Transamerica, Shopgirl, Good Night, and Good Luck, In Her Shoes, The Squid and the Whale, Match Point, North Country, and many others that may not have been box office phenomena, but were very well received small films that many people (including my friend) don’t have access to (or didn’t at the time of their theatrical release).

I tried to explain to her that the good movie still existed — just no longer in the big budget, special effects, A-List actor, big-shot director, car chases and gun shooting, murder and violence, sex and drugs kind of film. The good movies existed in simple but brilliant screenplays that at heart were just about people.

This is where I get to Crash. Since I didn’t have access to the film in the theaters when it was first released, I saw it for the first time on a small screen. I found out that the movie really does live up to all the buzz surrounding it. Even on my cheap, blurred, small computer monitor, Crash grabbed me and shook me. It shook me hard.

Yes, all of the characters may not have been completely fleshed out and three-dimensional, yes, much of the film may have been manipulative and slightly contrived, and yes, the portrayals of the events and how they pan out in the film are not all necessarily realistic — but my question is “Who cares?” It was such a brilliantly done film from the first frame to the very last. The completely original, risky, and thought provoking Oscar winning screenplay (which I was shocked white, male writers - Paul Haggis and and Robert Moresco - captured so truthfully), the riveting, emotional, touching and even at times funny acting from an excellent ensemble, the pitch perfect choice of music, the inspired directing by newcomer Paul Haggis (screenwriter of Million Dollar Baby), and even the beautiful Academy Award winning editing all came together to make what was, in my opinion, one of the best movies of all time.

Now I know many people disagree with me about the quality of this movie, which may lead me to think twice about how much I loved it, but frankly, I don’t care. And personally, a few people that I know that have criticized the movie and called it overrated are people who I have observed to be prejudiced themselves, therefore concluding that the movie probably made them uncomfortable (which, by the way, was kind of the point). But before everyone jumps all over me and burns me at the stake, I want to make sure everyone understands that I am in no way saying that if you didn’t like this movie, it is because you are a racist. I’m simply saying for many people that didn’t, I’m sure the fact that it hit too close to home might have been partly to blame.

But the great thing about it is that Paul Haggis and Bobby Moresco knew that this movie would make people uncomfortable (not just people who are clearly racist, but everyone — as the movie’s point is that no one can fully escape prejudice, even against their own) and that’s partly what their screenplay sets out to do.

I am reminded of D.W. Griffith when I think of Crash. D.W. Griffith was a pioneer filmmaker who made an early film called The Birth of a Nation in 1915. The Birth of a Nation was extremely popular. The film glorified slavery and provided historical justification for segregation and disfranchisement of African American people. There’s a scene where the Ku Klux Klan gallops in to save the heroine, and a scene where a white woman is forced to consider jumping off the edge of a cliff to escape a black man who is “trying to rape her.”

The film’s controversy lies in its premise that the Ku Klux Klan arose to restore order to the post-war South, as it was “endangered” by “uncontrollable” African American denizens and their allies, abolitionists, mulattos and carpetbagging Republican politicians from the North. Though popular and lucrative, the film drew significant protest upon its release. Premieres of the film were widely protested by the newly founded NAACP. Griffith was surprised by the harsh criticism. He didn’t know that there were people that felt so differently from the socio-political climate of his own environment.

He later made another film that was released that next year called Intolerance. One of the unusual characteristics of the film is that none of the characters have names. Griffith wished them to be emblematic of human types. Thus, the central female character in the modern story is called The Dear One. Her young husband is called The Boy, and the leader of the local mafia is called The Musketeer of the Slums.

All of the stories, spanning several hundreds of years and cultures, are held together by themes of intolerance, man’s inhumanity to man, hypocrisy, bigotry, religious hatred, persecution, discrimination and injustice achieved in all eras by entrenched political, social and religious systems. The film, at the time, was the most expensive film made ever made. And it completely and utterly bombed at the box-office, as its target audience (middle class Americans) hated it. It made them completely uncomfortable and hit entirely too close to home. Yet now, we realize how incredibly great the film was, and many consider it to be one of the best films in history and the greatest film of the silent era.

This is all to say what, exactly? Well two things: one, Crash, like Intolerance, is yet another example of people simply disliking a film because of controversial themes that people don’t want to deal with and thereby disregarding the quality of the film itself; and two, as Paul Haggis tried to explain in his Oscar acceptance speech, art isn’t necessarily a Shakespearian mirror held up to nature, but also a Brechtian hammer to reshape society. And if these so-called “cliche” characters and lines that Haggis and Moresco used as puppets to create this incredible interweaving story of love, corruption, indifference, regret, pain, prejudice, and hypocrisy are not entirely realistic, that’s okay. Art is not something you can truly define. It is not something you can wrap up and put into a box. True art is created when thinking outside of the box. And that’s what makes this screenplay and this film so unforgettable for me.

Terrence Howard, Sandra Bullock, Matt Dillon (who, by the way, should’ve beaten George Clooney), Don Cheadle, Ryan Phillippe, Larenz Tate, Michael Pena (who should’ve been nominated for an Oscar but probably wasn’t because of how little screen time he had, plus he’s a new face), Thandie Newton, Loretta Devine, Brendan Fraser, Jennifer Esposito, and Chris “Ludacris” Bridges all gave wonderful performances and all deliver what I call “un-winning” acting. They’re not trying to be right. They’re just trying to be real. And that is what I love about the way these characters were created. There is a point in time for every major character in this movie when you like them and a point in time where you dislike them, even if only for the shortest amount of time. There is no clear protagonist or antagonist — they’re all just people. Flawed, real people. And that is what allows Crash to make you feel. Whatever it makes each individual person feel — it just makes you feel.

And it does all of this on a budget of 6.5 million dollars. Wow. Maybe the major Hollywood studios can take a lesson from a movie like Crash, that is bark and bang, heart and soul, simply by just having a damn good story to tell.

I will say, that this movie is one of the most personal movies I’ve ever seen, and due to the truthful nature of the writing and the acting, creates some of the most intense moments I have ever seen on the screen (namely one with Michael Pena and his character’s daughter near the end of the movie, which had my heart racing and my eyes wet — I won’t give it away).

The power of Crash is that it can make you think differently about perception and assumptions. And whether you’re black, white, Asian, Spanish, gay, straight, male, or female, this movie can make you realize how making those assumptions about people can cloud your vision as to what is really there in front of you. But of course, that is only if you want to see it.

Many people were extremely pissed when Crash caused possibly the biggest Best Picture upset in Oscar history a few weeks ago. I, personally, was completely shocked–but was in no way upset, as I had always thought that Crash deserved it more than Brokeback Mountain (which was also a very good film–just not as good as Crash). The thing that I don’t understand, is that people are arguing that the Academy is not as liberal as they claim to be–voting for Crash instead of the gay-themed Brokeback, but Crash is just as socially relevant–in fact probably more so considering that Brokeback is simply a love story that doesn’t try in any way to be preachy or change people’s thinking, whereas Crash embraces is socio-political nature, grabbing the issue of racism and prejudice by its horns.

All I have to say, to anyone who took part in this film is simply, “Bravo.” Bravo for making a movie that makes me want to go to the movies again, thank you for making a movie that makes me re-evaluate who I am and what I believe and what perceptions I have of the world and the people in it. And bravo for being socially and culturally relevant without being biased or unfair, but most imporantly, bravo for making me believe in the power of film all over again.

“Crash“, winner of the 2005 Academy Award® for Best Picture, makes its United States television premiere as part of Showtime’s “It’s All for You” free preview weekend, Friday, March 31 through Monday, April 3.

Showtime is presenting a very strong line-up of top shelf programming for the preview, which for the first time in its 30 year history will be available to be viewed by a record 45,000,000 households.

Saturday, April 1 will showcase Showtime’s presentation of the exclusive airing of the fully-restored, digitally re-mastered 1972 classic, “Liza with a ‘Z’” (9 ET/PT) starring Liza Minnelli and directed and choreographed by the legendary Bob Fosse. This Emmy® award winning program hasn’t been seen on any television network since 1972 and viewers will get a chance to see the brilliance of both Fosse’s and Liza’s breathtaking performance brought to Showtime by producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron.

No less of a knockout will be Showtime Championship Boxing’s showcase of the match up of WBO Heavyweight Champion Lamon Brewster vs. Sergei Liakhovich (11 PM ET/PT) as Showtime celebrates its 20th anniversary of presenting Championship Boxing.

The U.S. television premiere of the Academy Award® winning Best Picture of the Year, “Crash” (8 PM ET/PT), starts the Sunday night excitement followed by the eagerly awaited, second season premiere of “Huff” (10 ET/PT). “Huff” stars Hank Azaria as a psychiatrist struggling with a mid life crisis and trying to balance his roles as son, father, husband and doctor. The series also stars Paget Brewster, Anton Yelchin, Andy Comeau, with Blythe Danner, Emmy® winner for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, and Oliver Platt.

The “It’s All for You” preview weekend will conclude on Monday with the season premiere of the award-winning “Penn & Teller: Bullsh*t!” (10 PM ET/PT).

Throughout the weekend, Showtime is also offering consumers a chance to win prizes, including a $50 American Express gift card for every 100th caller and a grand prize of a 2006 BMW 650i Convertible, similar to the car as seen on “Huff“

Annie Proulx, who wrote the story that spawned the film “Brokeback Mountain,” has lashed out at members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for passing over that movie in favor of “Crash” for the best picture Oscar.

Writing Saturday in Britain’s Guardian newspaper, Proulx said that she and others connected with the film had hoped to win the Oscar on March 5 after it was named best picture at the Independent Spirit Awards the day before.

“We should have known conservative heffalump academy voters would have rather different ideas of what was stirring contemporary culture,” Proulx wrote. “Roughly 6,000 film industry voters, most in the Los Angeles area, many living cloistered lives behind wrought-iron gates or in deluxe rest-homes, out of touch not only with the shifting larger culture and the yeasty ferment that is America these days, but also out of touch with their own segregated city, decide which films are good.

“And rumor has it that [Lionsgate] inundated the academy voters with DVD copies of ‘Trash’ — excuse me — ‘Crash’ a few weeks before the ballot deadline. Next year we can look to the awards for controversial themes on the punishment of adulterers with a branding iron in the shape of the letter A, runaway slaves and the debate over free silver.”

She concluded the article: “For those who call this little piece a Sour Grapes Rant, play it as it lays.”

Here is video of ‘Crash’ winning Best Picture:

By Michael Wilmington
Chicago Tribune

When “Crash” took the best picture Oscar March 5, beating the heavy favorite “Brokeback Mountain” at the last minute, it was the one surprise in an evening woefully short of them.

Philip Seymour Hoffman, Reese Witherspoon, Ang Lee, Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana, Wallace and Gromit, even “Crash” original screenplay writers Paul Haggis and Bobby Moresco – one by one the night’s long-predicted favorites kept rolling over their opponents as if the whole thing had been scripted.

That’s why that final “Whoa! Crash” from presenter Jack Nicholson was such a shock. In one wild moment, the whole evening turned around, ripping through the show’s complacency and probably spoiling a lot of instant think-pieces already half-composed about “Brokeback’s” gutsy reversal of America’s sexual-cultural mythos.

It surprised me, too. Up to that moment, I had a good string running on my own predictions — and “Brokeback” for best picture seemed a safe pick. So I wasn’t happy. It wasn’t because I, along with some other writers, regard “Crash” as unworthy or because I think Ang Lee’s melancholy movie about two gay cowboys was the victim of a sinister “Break Brokeback” conspiracy, revealing academy voters as hypocritical homophobes.

Great PR move

“Crash” probably won because more of the academy voters liked and admired it as a movie. They didn’t shun “Brokeback”; they gave it three key Oscars (best director, adapted screenplay and original score) and a strong place in academy history. But I would argue that the majority — and maybe it was a slim majority — honestly preferred “Crash.” In the end, it’s more likely that the voting majority thought “Brokeback” was a good, honorable film, but slower, less engrossing and less moving compared with the jazzy, multistranded, Altmanesque L.A.-contempo “Crash,” a movie about racism and crime in today’s Los Angeles with a big-name ensemble cast playing for peanuts, a tricky structure of interweaving stories and an overall L.A. atmosphere and feeling that struck many Angelenos as right-on. It’s a movie that, according to New York Daily News critic, Oscar expert and L.A. native Jack Mathews “played like gangbusters to people who lived in L.A.”

“Brokeback,” with a more realistic and impeccably literary screenplay, shot in a languorous style reminiscent of European art films, simply didn’t connect with the voters in the same way, but not because they are homophobic. A few may well be, just as some may have been offended by “Munich’s” take on terrorism, “Capote’s” gay protagonist or even the anti-McCarthyism of “Good Night, and Good Luck.” But not enough to matter. Certainly, this is not an industry you could reasonably accuse of widespread anti-liberalism and homophobia.

There are other good reasons “Crash” may have won. For one thing, “Crash’s” feisty little studio, Lionsgate, sent out a ton of DVDs, making sure it was seen. For another, there was a powerful third film in the race: “Capote.”

“Capote” was a movie with strong and stubborn support among critics and, I’ll bet, also among academy members. Like “Brokeback,” it was a picture with a gay protagonist, Hoffman as Truman Capote, whom we see during the writer’s Kansas adventure researching and writing “In Cold Blood.” Like “Brokeback,” it was highly literary in composition and, unlike “Crash,” not afflicted with some of those movie devices you call either cliches or mythic archetypes.

If “Capote” had not been in the race, the vast majority of its voters probably would have gone to “Brokeback,” rather than the other three films. So if you’re looking for a spoiler to “Brokeback’s” seemingly sure win, it makes more sense to pick “Capote” than “Crash.” (That doesn’t make for sexy instant analysis though.) And you could also lay some blame on the fact that all five of the nominees were serious film dramas tackling weighty or significant subjects, which meant that issues-minded voters could comfortably vote for any of them.

A fable

More of them were comfortable with “Crash.” But though that result offended critics who had attacked Paul Haggis’ movie for precisely those pesky “cliches,” we should remember, as Mathews points out, that “Crash” really isn’t meant to be taken literally. It’s a fable, a thriller, a polemic. (In his acceptance speech, Canadian immigrant Haggis made just that point, arguing that art isn’t necessarily a Shakespearean mirror held up to nature but also a Brechtian hammer to reshape society.)

The critics who trashed “Crash” were probably more partial to the literary-psychological modes of both “Brokeback” and “Capote.” They wanted the mirror and not the hammer. They couldn’t accept scenes such as the one where previously racist-seeming cop Matt Dillon tries to pull from a flipped-over soon-to-burn vehicle the same African-American woman (Thandie Newton) whom he molested during a roust the night before. I can see the critics’ point; compared with real life, it’s a thoroughly implausible scene. But it does play like gangbusters.

In any case, it makes little sense for liberal film critics to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by trashing “Crash” and obsessing about “Brokeback’s” non-win. “Crash” is a fine, strong, very well-made movie about urgent contemporary issues, a film that genuinely entertains and moves people, especially Angeleno Oscar-voters. That’s a large part of why it won and why the result is actually a hopeful sign inside the industry — as a “Brokeback” win would also have been.

So, for that matter, would a win for “Capote,” “Munich” or “Good Night, and Good Luck.” It was that kind of year.

All last week, the jokes were flying endlessly about the title of Paramount Pictures’ new romantic comedy Failure to Launch, starring Matthew McConaughey and Sarah Jessica Parker.

Many critics and analysts claimed that the title may as well be a self-fulfilling prophecy for the film’s success. Whomever came up with that title is indeed getting the last laugh today, as the movie took an easy victory at the box office, claiming the #1 spot from Madea’s Family Reunion with an estimated opening gross of $24.6 million, an impressive per-theatre average of over $8 thousand in upwards of 3,000 theatres.

Proving that there was an audience eagerly awaiting a strong romantic comedy, the movie make almost a million more its opening weekend than McConaughey’s previous rom-com hit How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days made three years ago. That movie went onto make over $100 million.

The original comedy was joined this weekend by two very different remakes fighting it out for second place. According to estimates, Disney’s The Shaggy Dog, starring Tim Allen as a man who changes into a dog, eeked out the victory with an opening weekend take of roughly $16 million in over 3,500 theatres.

The Wes Craven produced remake of his own 1977 horror film, The Hills Have Eyes, this time directed by Alexandre Aja, was off to a good start on Friday, but dropped back over the weekend to a respectable opening of $15.5 million in 900 fewer theatres than The Shaggy Dog.

Dropping down to fourth place, the Warner Bros. thriller 16 Blocks, starring Bruce Willis and Mos Def, had the smallest second weekend decline of the movies opening last week, and it stayed perched above the other returning movies with $7.3 million, bringing its gross to $22.7 million.

Having passed the total gross of Tyler Perry’s previous film over the weekend, Madea’s Family Reunion took another 54% drop and ended up at #5 with $5.8 million and a cumulative gross of $55.7 million.

Disney’s other dog movie, Eight Below, lost some of its family business to The Shaggy Dog, but still earned another $5.4 million over the weekend. So far, it has grossed $66.4 million in four weeks, and is currently the third highest grossing film to open in 2006.

Last week’s other new films took sharp drops with 20th Century Fox’s teen comedy Aquamarine pulling slightly ahead of Kurt Wimmer sci-fi-action film Ultraviolet, starring Milla Jovovich, in their second weeks. The former made $3.65 million in its second weekend, while the latter took in $3.6 million, putting it neck and neck with Sony’s hit comedy remake The Pink Panther for eighth place. Starring Steve Martin as Inspector Clouseau, the latter has grossed more money than any other movie opening in 2006 after just five weeks.

20th Century Fox’s romantic comedy spoof Date Movie held onto the Top 10 with $2.5 million, bringing its box office gross to $44.2 million. Having doubled its production budget, one can probably expect the inevitable Date Movie 2 to spoof Failure to Launch.

After a brief Oscar run in 2005, the long delayed period drama The Libertine, starring Johnny Depp, finally received a national roll-out into just 815 theatres where it made an unimpressive $2.2 million.

Surprisingly, the sharpest decline from last weekend was suffered by the concert film, Dave Chappelle’s Block Party, which took a 68% drop in its second weekend, despite strong reviews before opening. Apparently, Chappelle’s many fans were expecting something different from his comeback. It made less than $2 million this weekend, to bring its total to $9.6 million, but it dropped down to the bottom of the Top 12.

After losing the Best Picture Oscar to Crash last Sunday, Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain took a 49% tumble after losing 395 theatres. Still, it has grossed over $81 million, significantly more than the controversial Oscar victor.

Opening in limited release, the erotic drama Ask the Dust, starring Colin Farrell and Salma Hayek, made roughly $72 thousand in 7 theatres, while the Alfonso Cuaron sheperded Mexican comedy Duck Season made roughly a third that amount in 6 theatres.

Oscar gold became real gold for best-picture winner “Crash” - its DVD sales spiked after Sunday’s Academy Awards. On Monday, Lionsgate, the film’s distributor, sold 17,500 copies of “Crash,” more than half the previous week’s entire total of 33,000.

The DVD was No. 19 on Amazon.com’s top-sellers list on Wednesday, up more than 80 places from last week.

“Crash,” which was released on DVD on Sept. 6, 2005, has sold about 4 million copies to date, a spokeswoman said Wednesday. Sales also spiked after the Oscar nominations were announced on Jan. 31.

A two-disc “director’s cut” edition of the film will be released on April 4.

“Crash” opened in theaters in May 2005

Fresh off its best-picture Oscar win, “Crash” is coming back to theaters Friday.

Its distributor, Lionsgate, said Tuesday the film will play in “150-plus” theaters in the United States.

The film, a racial drama that tells the intertwining stories of an array of characters over 36 hours in Los Angeles, originally opened in May, 2005, grossing $55 million domestically.

An overseas rerelease in English-speaking countries is also in the works, a Lionsgate spokeswoman said.

The film has been available on DVD in the U.S. since September. Its theatrical rerelease is “open-ended” pending its performance, said Steve Rothenberg, Lionsgate’s president of theatrical distribution.

In addition to the best-picture trophy, “Crash” won Oscars for editing and original screenplay at Sunday’s Academy Awards.

Theories abound about how the film took the best-picture Academy Award, from urban bias to a canny DVD marketing campaign.

But some observers also question whether voters in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences weren’t ready to embrace Brokeback Mountain, the gay-cowboy film that was expected to take the top prize Sunday night.

“We’re extremely disappointed it didn’t win best picture,” says Neil Giuliano, president of The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. “We certainly aren’t going to paint the entire academy with a broad stroke, but maybe there was some conflict in some members’ minds. Still, the movie got tremendous recognition, and we’re very pleased with that.”

Brokeback had eight nominations and was favored to win best picture by the number of pre-Oscar awards it collected. The movie did win Oscars for best director, Ang Lee, score and adapted screenplay.

Larry McMurtry, who won the Oscar with Diana Ossana for adapting Annie Proulx’s short story into the screenplay for Brokeback, says he wonders whether Crash, about race relations in Los Angeles, benefited from being set in the city where most academy members live.

“Yeah, I do,” McMurtry says. “The members of the academy are mostly urban people. We’re not a rural nation. It’s not easy to get a rural story made.”

In addition to having a timely theme that resonated among the Los Angeles film community, Crash had the benefit of a well-timed $4 million Oscar DVD campaign.

Crash took in about $53.4 million for its May theatrical release. It came out on DVD in September, and Lionsgate sent DVDs to all 130,000 members of the Screen Actors Guild — even though only about 1,400 of them are members of the academy.

Even the makers of Crash seemed stunned by the upset.

“Lionsgate was brilliant in how they kept the film in people’s minds,” says Crash writer and director Paul Haggis. “They did a masterful marketing campaign on this. I really owe these Oscars (in his hand) to them. I had thought the DVD came out too early in September — and I was wrong. I thought November maybe, but that showed me I’m not meant to ever market a movie in my life.”

And the film did get a little hometown push, including from Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

He “was wonderful to us,” Haggis says. “He really embraced the film. He said ‘Yes, this is our Los Angeles.’ ”

Crash producer Cathy Schulman says the film’s racial subject matter kept it “alive in the news. It was a film that for whatever reason, from a socio-political standpoint, it kept being discussed.”

The cowboy love story “Brokeback Mountain” won best picture and its creator Ang Lee was named best director Saturday at the Independent Spirit Awards, which played out as a potential prelude to the Academy Awards.

Honoring the best in lower-budgeted, edgy filmmaking, the Spirit Awards honored many key contenders for Sunday’s Oscars, where “Brokeback Mountain” is the best-picture favorite.

“In a year when the Oscars have such an independent spirit, I really treasure this encouragement,” Lee said.

Top Oscar nominees “Capote,” “Crash” and “Transamerica” also earned two honors at the Spirit Awards, and virtually every winner in the ceremony’s top 12 categories also is competing at the Oscars.

“Capote” took the best-actor award for Philip Seymour Hoffman, who is the favorite to win the same prize at the Oscars for his role as author Truman Capote. The film also earned writer Dan Futterman the best-screenplay award.

Hoffman, who has won most other key best-actor honors this award season, cheered his fellow nominees: Jeff Daniels for “The Squid and the Whale,” Terrence Howard for “Hustle & Flow,” Heath Ledger for “Brokeback Mountain,” and David Strathairn for “Good Night, and Good Luck.”

“It’s ludicrous and I’ve been given enough,” Hoffman said. “And I want to share this so badly with all the nominees. I can’t tell you how fantastic these gentlemen are.”

Felicity Huffman, also an Oscar nominee, was named best actress for “Transamerica,” in which she delivers a gender-bending role as a man preparing for sex-change surgery. The film’s director, Duncan Tucker, received the award for best first screenplay.

The ensemble drama “Crash” won for best first feature by a director (Paul Haggis) and best supporting actor for Matt Dillon, who also has an Oscar nomination for his performance as a racist cop.

The supporting-actress prize went to Amy Adams for “Junebug,” who is nominated for an Oscar for her role as a sparkling Southern waif.

There usually is some overlap between the Oscars and Spirit Awards, such as last year’s “Sideways,” which dominated the independent prizes and was a contender in top Oscar categories.

But this year, the Oscar nominations mainly singled out the same dark, daring low-budgeted films that ruled the Spirit Awards.

“Brokeback Mountain” is the story of two sheepherders who carry on a torrid gay love affair that they conceal from their families for years.

It would be the first explicit gay theme film to win the best-picture Oscar.

“Mostly ‘Brokeback Mountain’ is about sheep,” said one of the film’s producers, Diana Ossana.

“So we want to thank our shepherd, Ang Lee,” said the film’s other producer, James Schamus.

Along with “Brokeback Mountain,” “Crash” and “Capote” are nominated for best picture at the Oscars. A fourth best-picture Oscar nominee, the Edward R. Murrow tale “Good Night, and Good Luck,” earned the cinematography honor at the Spirit Awards for Robert Elswit, who also is nominated at the Oscars.

The Spirit Awards’ other top two prizes also went to Oscar nominees: The Palestinian terrorist tale “Paradise Now” was picked as best foreign film, while “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room” was honored as best documentary.

Presented by the nonprofit group Film Independent, the Spirit Awards honor movies showcasing original, provocative subject matter shot on relatively modest budgets, with financing at least partly from outside the Hollywood studio system. Winners were chosen by the group’s 6,000 members, who include actors, directors, writers and other film professionals.