LOS ANGELES, (Reuters):
THE OSCARS opened the closet door to gay-themed films but shut it almost as quickly.
Brokeback Mountain, the much-ballyhooed favourite about two gay cowboys, won best director for Ang Lee on Sunday but stunningly lost the best picture prize to race drama Crash. Additionally Philip Seymour Hoffman won best actor for playing gay novelist Truman Capote in Capote.
WHAT AMERICA WANTS
The victory for Crash suggested Oscar voters were more comfortable with a tale that exploited the seamy underbelly of racial conflict in contemporary Los Angeles than with a heartbreaking tale of love between two married men.
"Perhaps the truth really is, Americans don't want cowboys to be gay," said Larry McMurtry, 69, who shared an Oscar for best adapted screenplay with Diana Ossana for Brokeback.
No overtly gay love story has ever won a best picture award and, as of Monday morning, none has.
Brokeback led the field with eight nominations and ended up with three prizes, also winning for original score.
BEST ACTRESS
Hoffman won for playing Truman Capote in Capote, a story of the archly gay writer going to Kansas to report on the murder of a family of four for his classic book In Cold Blood. Hollywood sweetheart Reese Witherspoon won best actress for her performance as country singer June Carter in the Johnny Cash biographical film, Walk the Line.
Crash, which covers a 36-hour period in Los Angeles as the lives of people of many races collide in a way that highlights bigotry, was a close second to Brokeback in Oscar handicapping. Crash writer/director Paul Haggis said he was "shocked, shocked" with the victory. It also won three prizes.
