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Canadian-born Paul Haggis said Monday he was more than surprised when the envelope for best picture revealed his race-relations drama Crash had won Oscar's top prize.

Like many, he had been expecting the best-picture trophy to go to the cowboy romance, Brokeback Mountain.

“I was dumbfounded,” Mr. Haggis told CBC Newsworld.

Heading into Sunday night's climactic moment in Los Angeles, he said, he was convinced Ang Lee's highly praised – and Alberta-shot – film would win.

“I didn't think [Brokeback Mountain would win], I knew, didn't you? Everybody knew.”

However, when actor Jack Nicholson read out the winner, it was Mr. Haggis's ensemble piece that academy members tapped as the year's best picture.

“Getting it [the best-picture Oscar] from Jack Nicholson, that was pretty darn cool, I'll tell you that,” Mr. Haggis, who also co-produced Crash, said. “It was an amazing feeling. I mean, I'm just going to say all of the clichés everyone says. It was sensational.”

Earlier in the evening, Mr. Haggis – who was born in London, Ont. – had picked up an award for best original screenplay, sharing that price with co-writer Bobby Moresco.

Although he was also nominated for best director, that prize ultimately went to Mr. Lee for Brokeback Mountain.

Of his film's critical and popular success, Mr. Haggis said the current political climate – particularly in the United States – played a part in its finding an audience.

“We're in a time of war here, and you either go one or two directions,” he said.

“You head off and escape, or you start talking about questions, and all of the terrific films this year asked important questions about who we are, and I guess that's what we were trying to do, as well.”

Still, he said, at the start of the process, he was doubtful that Crash, given its difficult subject matter, would get made at all. The same went for last year's boxing drama Million Dollar Baby, for which he also received a screenwriting nomination.

“Who would want to see that?” he said of Crash, with its themes of racial strife, fear and intolerance.

“I thought that my grandchildren would read the scripts, and go 'Look, grandpa tried to get in the movies, isn't that cute,' and that's the end of it.”

Mr. Haggis studied cinematography at Fanshawe College in London, Ont. He moved, at age 22, to Los Angeles with his first wife in the late 1970s, and wrote for U.S. shows, including The Love Boat, Who's the Boss?, Diff'rent Strokes and The Facts of Life. His trophy shelf includes Emmys for his work on thirtysomething and Geminis for the Alliance Atlantis/CBS Mountie drama Due South.

Mr. Haggis has said in previous interviews that he got the idea for the screenplay after he and his wife were carjacked in the early 1990s.