Ang Lee Blames ‘Brokeback Mountain' Oscar Loss On Homophobia

17 years after “Brokeback Mountain” lost Best Picture to “Crash,” director Ang Lee has decided to, state the obvious, by pointing the finger and blaming homophobia for the Oscar upset.

Lee tells IndieWire that there definitely was discrimination against his gay love story.

“Back then, [‘Brokeback Mountain’] had a ceiling. We got a lot of support — up to that much,” he said. “It has that feeling. I wasn’t holding a grudge or anything. It’s just how they were,” Lee said of the Academy at the time.

Lee did end up winning Best Director and he remembers coming off the stage, after accepting his award, thinking ‘Brokeback’ had would also win the big prize.

“I got my award, which was [second to] last to the big one, and I was walking off the stage, they called me down, and said, stay here. That’s your mark. Everybody assumes you will win, so stay at that mark,” Lee said. “Right next to the stage was the curtain. The next was Best Picture. Stay here, just stay here. I saw Jack Nicholson, his profile, he opened the envelope, and I go, ‘Oh my god, oh my god.’ It took like 10 seconds before he announced, and then he went, ‘Crash.’”

There’s no doubt in my mind that some discrimination played a role in ‘Brokeback’ losing to “Crash”. You even had a then 81-year-old Tony Curtis widely quoted as saying he “hasn’t seen the heavily Oscar-nominated picture and probably won’t, and the same is true for other Academy members,” and that “Howard Hughes and John Wayne wouldn’t like it.”

Roger Ebert actually predicted that “Crash” would take the Best Picture Oscar, essentially hinting that older-Academy-member homophobia was going to ultimately call the tune.

Then there was the late Nikki Finke‘s 02.02.07 L.A. Weekly column that stated “this year’s dirty little secret is the anecdotal evidence pouring in to me about hetero members being unwilling to screen Brokeback Mountain…for a community that takes pride in progressive values, it’s shameful that Hollywood’s homophobia may be on a par with Pat Robertson’s.”

So, the “upset” didn’t come out of left field. I don’t even think it should be qualified as an “upset”. The precursors had hinted at the eventual result. ‘Brokeback’ lost SAG, and “Crash” won WGA. The film also had passionate backing from the likes of Ebert and Oprah Winfrey, the latter dedicating an entire episode of her show to the film. “Crash” was the “middle of the road” pick, and the Academy decided to honor it instead of ‘Brokeback.’

Obviously, compared to “Crash,” ‘Brokeback’ has stood the test of time. I didn’t think Lee’s film was necessarily that great, but it would have surely been a worthier winner than “Crash.” However, if the Academy had any integrity back in the day then it would have nominated the best film of 2005, David Cronenberg’s “A History of Violence.” That was the real Oscar travesty from that year.