Ang Lee won the Academy Award as best director for the gay cowboy romance Brokeback Mountain.
Ang Lee won the Academy Award as best director Sunday for the cowboy romance "Brokeback Mountain."
Brokeback Mountain director became the first Asian director to win Hollywood's top honor for filmmakers.
In Brokeback Mountain, Ang Lee depicted a truly American story about two men tragically swept up in a gay romance that they conceal from their families for two decades.
Ang Lee is famous for highly visual movies. He directed Jane Austen costume romance "Sense and Sensibility," a best-picture nominee, the stark American drama "The Ice Storm," the comic-book adaptation "Hulk," and the martial-arts epic "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," which won the Oscar for foreign-language film in 2001.
Brokeback Mountain won the best film award at the Venice International Film Festival and was named 2005's best film by the Los Angeles film critics.
Brokeback Mountain also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture — Drama, with Ang Lee winning the Golden Globe Award for Best Director.
Ang Lee also won the Best Director award for the film at the 2006 British Academy Awards (BAFTAs).