I wouldn't have much of a problem with it beating SPR if it weren't for this: I know one of the film's producers, Ian Bryce [he's also been behind Spider-man, Transformers, and now Hancock so he's pretty well-off]. He said that a man came up to him a few months after its release and said that before this film came out, he had never been able to talk to his family about what World War II was like for him as a soldier and the effects it had on him. When everyone he knew saw this film, it was so accurate in its portrayal and so powerful that it allowed people to finally understand what it was like, and he was able to talk about it for the first time in his life.

I can't think of one thing about Shakespeare in Love that comes even close to being as powerful as that.

Memento losing Best Original Screenplay was also pretty weak

Especially considering his performance in Cinderella Man was quite weaker.

Biggest Win-Surprises (no order):


- One of the biggest one, without a doubt is of course Crash winning Best Picture over Brokeback Mountain. Looking back at it, the SAG Ensemble win was foretelling, but hell, it still had no precedence. The last movie to win Best Picture without a Golden Globe Picture nom was The Sting, I think and that made $150+ million in theatres whereas Crash wasn't even the biggest nominee in its year and Brokeback Mountain sweeped the awards before it.


- Another already mentioned one would be The Pianist winning Best Actor/Director/Adapted Screenplay - it was not a frontrunner by far in any of these, so the whole thing was "WTF?!". In Best Actor, we all thought that it'd be a tight two-way race between Day-Lewis and Nicholson, Director was obviously going to Scorsese or Marshall and Adapted Screenplay to the much lauded Adaptation or to The Hours. Hell, The Pianist didn't get a WGA nom even!


- Marisa Tomei (My Cousin Vinny) winning with pretty much not a single precursor was baffling, especially since Judy Davis (Husbands and Wives) and Joan Plowright (Enchanted April) both seemed to have a great chance winning several big precursors.


- Marcia Gay Harden winning for Pollock without even a SAG nom or a GG nom was equally msyterious. I mean the only precursor she had was winning Best Supporting Actress at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards...and that's it!


- Shakespeare in Love winning Best Picture over Saving Private Ryan was surprising because Ryan won the PGA and the DGA before, but to a less degree because SiL also won the Golden Globe for BP (Comedy/Musical) and led the nominations count that night.


- However Braveheart winning BP certainly was somewhat of a surprise. I bet what helped immensly was the lack of a Best Director nom for Apollo 13 and Sense and Sensibility. Braveheart remains the only BP winner not to be nominated by the SAG for Best Ensemble and it wasn't nominated for a PGA awards either.


- Roberto Benigni (Life is Beautiful) winning Best Actor was quite a shocker as well

I thought Soderbergh winning wasn't much of a surprise, since he had two nominations that night.

Well, the thing is that some people (including myself, Roger Ebert and some others) actually thought that Crash worked.

Even if you though it worked in getting its (overly simplistic, prejudiced) message across...I don't see how anyone could look past its god-awful screenplay, poor direction, and mostly-cheesy acting (with the exception of Thandie Newton...who was great).

but it's Crash though.

but it's Crash though.

It's really so tiring and annoying to have to try to defend one's opinion of a movie to pretentious people who nitpick and judge everything.