List of accolades received by Brokeback Mountain

The film Brokeback Mountain received many awards, including three Academy Awards for Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Score as well as four Golden Globe awards for Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Director, Best Song, and Best Screenplay and four BAFTA Awards for Best Film, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor (Jake Gyllenhaal). The film also received four Screen Actors Guild nominations for Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Best Ensemble, more than any other movie released in 2005.

Accolades

Organizations

Guilds

Film festivals

Other accolades

Won

• Aurora Film Awards 2005: Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay (Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana), Best Song
• Austin Film Critics Association: Best Adapted Screenplay (Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana)
• Boston Society of Film Critics: Best Picture, Best Director (Ang Lee)
• Box Office Mojo: The Ten Most Impressive Box Office Performances of 2005
• Central Ohio Film Critics Association: Top 10 Films, Best Lead Performance (Heath Ledger), Best Screenplay
• Chicago Film Critics Association: Best Cinematography (Rodrigo Prieto), Best Score (Gustavo Santaolalla)
• (International) Cinephile Society: Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, BFCA Film of the Month - December 2005
• Critics' Choice Award: Best Picture, Best Director (Ang Lee), Best Supporting Actress (Michelle Williams)
• Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association: Top 10 Films, Best Picture, Best Director (Ang Lee), Best Screenplay (Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana), Best Cinematography (Roberto Prieto)
• European Film Awards: Best Director (Ang Lee)
• Florida Film Critics Circle: Best Picture, Best Director (Ang Lee), Best Screenplay (Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana), Cinematography (Roberto Prieto)
• GLAAD Media Awards: Outstanding Film – Wide Release
• Independent Spirit Awards: Best Picture, Best Director (Ang Lee)
• Internet Movie Awards: Favorite Picture, Favorite Actor in a Leading Role (Heath Ledger), Favorite Actor in a Supporting Role (Jake Gyllenhaal), Favorite Actress in a Supporting Role (Michelle Williams), Favorite Director (Ang Lee), Favorite Screenplay (Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana), Favorite Soundtrack or Music Score (Gustavo Santaolalla), Favorite Song ("A Love That Will Never Grow Old"), Breakthrough Performance (Michelle Williams)
• Iowa Film Critics: Best Picture, Best Director (Ang Lee)
• Las Vegas Film Critics Society: Best Picture, Best Actor (Heath Ledger), Best Director (Ang Lee)
• London Film Critics Circle: Best Film, Best Director of the Year
• Los Angeles Film Critics Association: Best Picture, Best Director (Ang Lee)
• MTV Movie Awards: Best Performance (Jake Gyllenhaal), Best Kiss (Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal)
• National Board of Review: Top 10 Films, Best Director (Ang Lee), Best Supporting Actor (Jake Gyllenhaal)
• National Public Radio: Bob Mondello's Top Films for 2005
• New York Film Critics Circle: Best Picture, Best Director (Ang Lee), Best Actor (Heath Ledger)
• Online Film Critics Society: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay (Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana), Best Score (Gustavo Santaolalla), Best Ensemble, Best Cinematography, Best Song, Best Cinematic Moment (Finding the Shirt), Best Website
• Phoenix Film Critics Society: Top Ten Films, Best Performance by an Actor in a Lead Role (Heath Ledger), Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role (Jake Gyllenhaal), Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role (Michelle Williams), Best Screenplay Adapted from Another Medium, Best Cinematography
• San Francisco Film Critics: Best Picture, Best Director (Ang Lee), Best Actor (Heath Ledger)
• British Film Institute: Best Film
• Southeastern Film Critics Association: Top 10 Films, Best Picture, Best Director (Ang Lee), Best Adapted Screenplay (Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana)
• St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association: Best Picture, Best Actor (Heath Ledger), Best Director (Ang Lee), Best Screenplay (Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana)
• Utah Film Critics: Best Film, Best Director (Ang Lee)
• Vancouver Film Critics: Best Picture, Best Director (Ange Lee)
• World Soundtrack Awards: Public Choice Award (Gustavo Santaolalla)

Nominations

• Amanda Awards (Norway): Best Foreign Feature Film
• Broadcast Film Critics Association: Best Actor (Heath Ledger), Best Supporting Actor (Jake Gyllenhaal), Best Writer (Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana), Best Song (Emmylou Harris, "A Love That Will Never Grow Old"), Best Composer (Gustavo Santaolalla)
• Central Ohio Film Critics Association: (1st Runner-Up) Best Picture, Best Director (Ang Lee), Best Ensemble Cast, Best Formal Design
• Chicago Film Critics Association: Best Picture, Best Director (Ang Lee), Best Actor (Heath Ledger), Best Supporting Actor (Jake Gyllenhaal), Best Supporting Actress (Michelle Williams)
• Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association: (1st Runner-Up) Best Actor (Heath Ledger), (2nd Runner-Up) Best Supporting Actor (Jake Gyllenhaal), (1st Runner-Up) Best Supporting Actress (Michelle Williams)
• David di Donatello Awards (Italy): Best Foreign Film
• European Film Awards: Screen International Award (Ang Lee)
• Gotham Awards: Best Picture, Best Ensemble Cast
• Independent Spirit Awards: Best Male Lead (Heath Ledger), Best Female Lead (Michelle Williams)
• Los Angeles Film Critics Association: (1st Runner-Up) Best Actor (Heath Ledger)
• National Board of Review: (1st Runner-Up) Best Picture, Best Actor (Heath Ledger)
• National Society of Film Critics: (2nd Runner-Up) Best Actor (Heath Ledger)
• Online Film Critics Society: Best Picture, Best Actor (Heath Ledger), Best Supporting Actor (Jake Gyllenhaal), Best Supporting Actress (Michelle Williams), Best Director (Ang Lee)
• Southeastern Film Critics Association: (1st Runner-Up) Best Actor (Heath Ledger), (1st Runner-Up) Best Supporting Actress (Michelle Williams)
• USC Scripter Award: Best Realization of a Book Adapted to Film (Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana (Screenwriters), E. Annie Proulx (Author))
• World Soundtrack Awards: Best Original Soundtrack of the Year (Gustavo Santaolalla), Best Original Song Written for Film ("A Love That Will Never Grow Old")

Post-Academy Awards reaction

Some critics accused the Academy of homophobia for failing to award the Oscar for Best Picture to Brokeback Mountain and instead giving it to a rival nominee, Crash:

• Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: "In the privacy of the voting booth, as many political candidates who've led in polls only to lose elections have found out, people are free to act out the unspoken fears and unconscious prejudices that they would never breathe to another soul, or, likely, acknowledge to themselves. And at least this year, that acting out doomed Brokeback Mountain." ^[1]
• Nikki Finke, Los Angeles Weekly: "I knew there was a chance that, even without seeing the movie, Oscar voters could feel guilt-tripped or succumb to a herd mentality to vote for the "gay-cowboy" movie and strike a blow against Republican wedge politics and extremist religious hatemongering. But they didn't, and Brokeback lost for all the Right's reasons."^[2]
• Peter Howell, Toronto Star: "Sunday's selection of Crash over Brokeback Mountain for Best Picture was the first time in memory that fear seemed to be the guiding impulse for awarding Oscar's top prize. Faced with the choice between a feel-good movie about the evils of racism and a troublesome film that challenged prejudices about homosexual love, Academy voters grabbed their security blankets and started sucking on their thumbs."^[3]

Author Annie Proulx has also blamed right-wing influences for the film's failure to win Best Picture:

"The people connected with Brokeback Mountain, including me, hoped that, having been nominated for eight Academy Awards, it would get Best Picture as it had at the funny, lively Independent Spirit Awards. We should have known conservative heffalump Academy voters would have rather different ideas of what was stirring contemporary culture. Roughly 6,000 film industry voters, most in the Los Angeles area, many living cloistered lives behind wrought-iron gates or in deluxe rest-homes, out of touch not only with the shifting larger culture and the yeasty ferment that is America these days, but also out of touch with their own segregated city, decide which films are good. And rumour has it that Lions Gate inundated the Academy voters with DVD copies of Trash - excuse me - "Crash" a few weeks before the ballot deadline. Next year we can look to the awards for controversial themes on the punishment of adulterers with a branding iron in the shape of the letter A, runaway slaves, and the debate over free silver."

The writer has also pondered whether Philip Seymour Hoffman's performance, though "brilliant", involved the easier acting skill of "mimicry" (by implication, unlike Heath Ledger's Oscar-nominated Brokeback Mountain performance, in which he invented the clenched-jaw and mannerisms of "Ennis Del Mar").^[4]

Supporting the charge of homophobia were media reports that some members of the Academy were so opposed to the subject matter of the film that they refused to even view Brokeback Mountain before voting.^[5]

Other critics, however, pointed out that the charge of homophobia is an easy one to make, and that it was equally as likely that the Academy simply thought Crash to be a better film.^[6]

The Ultimate Brokeback Forum, a web forum of several thousand members, self-financed and designed a grass roots, full page ad in the May 10, 2006 issue of Daily Variety, thanking the creators of Brokeback Mountain, listing all of the significant Best Picture Awards the film received. This particular issue of Daily Variety was covered by such news organizations as The New York Times, Newsweek, and the UK newspaper The Daily Telegraph.

See also

• Brokeback Mountain soundtrack: description of related soundtrack recordings.
• "Brokeback Mountain" short story: description of original/amended Proulx story.

References

External links

• Awards for Brokeback Mountain at Internet Movie Database