"Crash!" And with that, the Oscars suddenly got interesting.
The edgy ensemble drama about a group of angry Angelenos pulled off a major upset victory in the Best Picture race, knocking the gay cowboys of Brokeback Mountain from their frontrunner saddles.
Clearly amazed by the win, the film's cast and crew exploded out of their seats and wildly embraced as the camera tried vainly to zero in on their looks of joyous astonishment.
The low-budget film's high-wattage win was one of the few surprising moments at the 78th Annual Academy Awards, which otherwise stuck to a fairly predictable script, with host Jon Stewart falling flat more often than not and presenter after presenter flubbing their lines after losing their place on the teleprompter.
As widely expected, Capote star Philip Seymour Hoffman picked up the Best Actor Oscar for his turn as effeminate author Truman Capote, a role which has already earned him a Golden Globe, a SAG Award, a Critics' Choice Award and an Independent Spirit Award, to name a few.
"I'm overwhelmed, I'm really overwhelmed," Hoffman said, going on to thank his mother, who he credited with inspiring his passion for acting.
"Be proud, Mom, because I'm proud of you, and we're here tonight, and it's so good," Hoffman said.
In another non-shocker, Reese Witherspoon won the Best Actress prize for her portrayal of June Carter Cash in Walk the Line.
"Johnny Cash and June Carter had a wonderful tradition of honoring other artists and musicians and singers and I really feel that tradition tonight," a teary Witherspoon gushed as she accepted her award.
"People used to ask June how she was doing, and she would say I'm just trying to matter. I know what she means," the actress added.
Brokeback Mountain, which went into the Academy Awards with a leading eight nominations, lassoed a total of three awards, including Best Director for Ang Lee, Best Original Score and Best Adapted Screenplay.
Despite his directing victory, Lee did not conceal his disappointment over Brokeback's defeat in the Best Picture category.
"I was a little shocked," the helmer told E! Entertainment after the ceremony. "Plus, we've been winning the whole season."
George Clooney, who was nominated in three categories, snared the Best Supporting Actor prize for Syriana early on, but correctly predicted that the award would be his only Oscar of the night.
"All right, so I'm not winning director," the actor joked, adding that the Oscar distinction would now be forever appended to his name. "Oscar winner George Clooney, sexiest man alive 1997, Batman, died today in a freak accident," he quipped.
A very pregnant Rachel Weisz won Best Supporting Actress for The Constant Gardner, an award she referred to as a "tremendous, tremendous honor."
THE BIG WINNERSFilm
Oscars
Brokeback Mountain
3
Crash
3
King Kong
3
Memoirs of a Geisha
3
Backstage, the expectant mother told reporters she planned to swap her heels for flats and celebrate her win with a virgin Bloody Mary.
The members of Three 6 Mafia won Best Song for "It's Hard Out There for a Pimp" from Hustle & Flow. The hip-hop ballad's expletive-laden lyrics had to be toned down for the telecast performance, though the Academy okayed the use of the word "bitches." Despite the modifications, the rap performance was bleeped at least once as was part of the group's acceptance speech.
For Memoirs of a Geisha, appearances were everything, with the visually (if not emotionally) stunning film picking up a trio of awards for Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design and Best Art Direction.
King Kong was another triple winner, nabbing the awards for Best Visual Effects, Sound Editing and Sound Mixing. Its win in the latter category gave Geisha's Kevin O'Connell a dubious honor--he has been nominated 18 times without winning, a record.
Without competition from Geisha or Kong, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe won Best Makeup.
On the 'toon side, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit took the Oscar for Best Animated Film, marking a victory for the old school technique of stop-motion animation over modern CGI technology. The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation won the award for Best Animated Short Film.
The South African drama Tsotsi, about a young hoodlum reclaiming his own humanity, won the Best Foreign-Language Oscar and March of the Penguins picked up Best Documentary.
Robert Altman, a five-time Best Director nominee, received a Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his lengthy career in film-making. "I look at it as a nod to all of my films. To me, I've just made one, long film," he said.
And the members of the Academy made one, long awards show. The kudos-cast ran significantly longer than the allotted three hours, meaning that acceptances speeches were (mercifully) cut progressively shorter as the hour grew later and the well-heeled audience prepared to hit the post-Oscar party circuit.
Here's a rundown of the winners at the 2006 Academy Awards:
Complete list of winners.