Yeah but Lec already covered it. Crash was "important". Crash had an uber cast. Crash was very American. Crash got to be the cop-out alternative to awarding Brokeback. Crash came out in a year where every nominee was low-grossing... It was the people popular choice even with 50 mil, which would've doubled if it came out in Oscar season. And the academy caught a lot of shit for Crash so they don't want to award a small film again for a while!

Not really related to its eventual Oscar success, but the film opened to $3.2 million in the UK, 2nd for the weekend to Simon Pegg's Run, Fat Boy, Run, and also lower than the P&P opening ($4.6 million), though that was rated PG there while Atonement was 15, so it shouldn't be too worrying yet.