Although I am as stunned as everybody here that BBM did not win Best Picture, I think I'd like direct attention back to Ang Lee. This amazingly gracious man made a point of mentioning the impact of homophobia on gay people everywhere. I think he knew that Best Picture was not an absolute certainty, so he "got his licks in" while the microphone was his. His acceptance speech had me in tears. He is truly one of the classiest people in the movie business. We owe him a lot.
I also don't think that winning 3 Academy Awards is something to be sniffed at. No gay-themed movie has ever done that before. Maybe we didn't witness history on the scale that we would have liked to see it, but this is a highly significant accomplishment, nonetheless.
I believe that Crash won because it is a topical Los Angeles drama. You've got to believe that a HUGE proportion of Academy members are Angelenos. That had to have had some impact on the outcome.
BBM punched through a number of barriers that will never stand again. It is NOT diminished by the fact that it didn't win Best Picture. I think it's important to remember that.
Yeah, I'm a sad pup tonight, too. I sure hope, though, that forum members, especially our wonderful young people, will not go to bed tonight thinking that the USA is hopelessly homophobic. It's not - 8 nominations and 3 wins certainly attests to that fact. Yes, BBM SHOULD have fared better - but, if Martin Luther King was still with us, I'm sure he'd tell us all that revolutions are hard-won and do not happen overnight.
I sincerely hope that all of you will try and see the silver lining and not be crushed by what happened tonight. I'm as disappointed as the next gal/guy, but I would hardly call it a shut-out.
JB