How 'Crash' went bang

At one point during his Oscar monologue Sunday night, host Jon Stewart rattled off the names of some of the actors he spotted in the Kodak Theatre who were in the movie "Crash": Sandra Bullock, Matt Dillon, Don Cheadle, Terrence Howard, Brendan Fraser and Ryan Phillippe.

Then he suggested that it might be easier for the actors in the audience who weren't in the film to raise their hands.

The joke was funny, but it made a subtle point. A big ensemble production, "Crash" is an actor's film, which probably best explains why it upset "Brokeback Mountain" to win the best picture Oscar.

Much of the morning-after punditry and blog logic has centered on whether members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences had trouble giving "Brokeback Mountain" a best picture nod because of its gay love theme. Another theory: Like a cinematic John Edwards, "Brokeback" peaked too early and its Oscar buzz dissipated.

In fact, the key to the success of "Crash" was that the film itself — and the carefully orchestrated promotional campaign undertaken by its distributor, Lionsgate — appealed to the academy's largest voting bloc: actors. With 22% of the voting members, the acting contingent is nearly three times as big as the next-largest group, producers.

It was actors — specifically, those in Los Angeles — who were targeted to deliver votes. And judging by the upset, deliver they did.

Oscar voting results are known only to a couple of accountants at PricewaterhouseCoopers, so it is impossible to compare actors' voting habits with, say, those of writers or directors. Unlike a political election, the best anyone can do is offer educated guesses as to why any film won or who voted for it.

Ultimately, enough voters have to like a picture for it to win — especially one as polarizing as "Crash," because people don't vote for movies they detest.

Still, one can't ignore the effect of the finely tuned Oscar strategy of Lionsgate and its parent, Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. The company opened its wallet at key times in January and February to allocate an extra $2 million, bringing its total outlay to $4 million. Targeted were Los Angeles actors, the niche it needed to emerge from a field of five films, none of which was an obvious front-runner.

Lionsgate's targeted effort could become a model for Oscar marketing in that it proved more effective than the usual carpet-bombing approach. Some believe that award-campaign impresario Harvey Weinstein, co-founder of Miramax Film Corp., pushed so hard to get statuettes for "Gangs of New York," released in 2002, and 2004's "The Aviator" that some voters were turned off.

"Crash" was the underdog from the start, with its difficult themes of racism and intolerance seeming no match for the love-is-universal underpinnings of the well-reviewed "Brokeback." "Crash" also had to overcome a bias Oscar voters usually show toward ensemble films. Ensemble movies are popular with actors because they showcase subtle performances. But they rarely win best picture.

Perhaps fittingly, the same year "Crash" beat the odds, the honorary Oscar went to one of Hollywood's premier big-cast directors: Robert Altman. It was Altman's first Oscar after a body of work that earned him Oscar nominations, but not wins, for ensemble pieces "Nashville," "MASH," "Gosford Park," "Short Cuts" and "The Player."

Crucial to Lionsgate's campaign was its decision to mail out 130,000 DVDs, including about 110,000 sent to actors. Not all recipients were Oscar voters. But "Crash" nonetheless won the best movie ensemble award from the Screen Actors Guild, an early tip-off that it might also have Oscar legs.

"Lionsgate's decision to send out the DVD to SAG was a really smart decision," "Crash" producer Cathy Schulman said Monday. "It was clear from the beginning of the film's release that the actors were really supporting the film…. I presume that's where a lot of the votes came from."

There were other early hints that "Crash" might go the distance. In the awards issued by Hollywood's directing, producing, art directing and writing guilds, "Crash" roughly held its own with "Brokeback" in nominations and wins.