An Oral History Of A Best Picture Shocker

An oral history of a Best Picture shocker.

- Stacey Wilson Hunt

IN 2006, Crash, a contemporary film about racism made on a $6.5 million budget, shocked Hollywood, and its creators, when it won Best Picture at the Oscars—the result of a prescient producing team, a famously canny awards campaign, and an unanticipated flood of support for this apparent underdog to the heavy favorite, Brokeback Mountain. Here, the central players recount the film’s unlikely march to the podium, which started at the Toronto International Film Festival, in 2004.

Paul Haggis, co-writer–director: I saw it on the big screen for the first time at Toronto. It was horrifying. I wanted to escape. The cast was there; I was sitting with my then-wife, Deborah. After it was over, I saw people gasping and crying, and I’m going, Who are these idiots? All I saw were the mistakes. The spotlight hits me, and there is a thunderous ovation that goes on and on. I think, Okay, it’s Toronto. They’re polite. 

Cathy Schulman, producer: My friends still say it’s the biggest standing ovation they’d ever seen at the festival. I was like, Oh my God! We’re going sell this movie! By that point, everybody involved was broke except for the actors. We had to make money.

Tom Ortenberg, CEO, Open Road Films: I was the president of theatrical films for Lionsgate at the time. All of us acquisition folks sit in clusters near our competitors. After the movie ends, all of us on the Lionsgate team look at each other like, That was terrific. Our competitors were totally dismissive and were talking about where they were going to get dinner.