Stirring movie Crash served up an Oscars surprise at the 78th Academy Awards last night when it beat out red-hot favourite Brokeback Mountain to claim the night's Best Picture prize.

The acclaimed film also took home Best Original Screenplay and Best Film Editing prizes to become one of four movies to take home three honours apiece.

Brokeback Mountain was another triple winner, claiming Best Score and Best Adapted Screenplay honours, while Ang Lee became the first Asian movie-maker to pick up the Best Director award for the gay cowboy film.

Memoirs Of A Geisha and King Kong also claimed three prizes each for Visual Effects, Costume Design, Art Direction and Sound Mixing honours, among others.

Meanwhile, the acting awards were shared - Reese Witherspoon and Philip Seymour Hoffman claimed the Best Actress and Actor honours, while George Clooney and pregnant Rachel Weisz took home the Supporting Actor and Actress prizes.

The full list of winners is:

Best Actress - Reese Witherspoon (Walk the Line)
Best Actor - Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote)
Best Supporting Actress - Rachel Weisz (Constant Gardener)
Best Supporting Actor - George Clooney (Syriana)
Best Visual Effects - Joe Letteri, Brian Van't Hul, Christian Rivers, Richard Taylor (King Kong)
Best Animated Feature - Wallace + Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit