3. Voters Are Lazy
If the 2005 Oscars proved anything, it was that Oscar voters are freaking
lazy. Brokeback Mountain had been mostly dominating the precursor circuit, and was widely expected to win Best Picture, but Lionsgate, the distributor of Crash, had a plan up their sleeve, one which worked swimmingly and shocked us all. They performed a last-minute screener blitz on Oscar voters, sending thousands of screeners out not long before the nomination deadline, ensuring that those who couldn't be arsed to catch the film at the cinema were able to watch it in the comfort of their own home. The rest is history; Crash won Best Picture to the surprise of many, and the reason is largely attributed to the massive screener campaign, which implies that voters aren't so much keen to seek out movies (even if they're highly-acclaimed, like Brokeback Mountain), as they will just watch whatever is sent to them.