Ang Lee reveals Oscar organizers wanted to award him Best Picture

But the latter win went to Crash , a film that was inferior to Ang Lee's work in many ways. The director has never spoken out about the Oscars, having won Best Director twice for Love Behind the Mountain and Life of Pi . His 2000 classic Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon also won four Oscars, including Best Foreign Language Film. But he has recently spoken out about the event.

Director Ang Lee won Best Director at the Oscars twice.

Ang Lee sees this as discrimination by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences against a gay love story. He said: "Back then, Love Behind the Mountain was praised to the skies. We received a lot of support, so winning Best Picture was almost certain. I have no ill will towards the Academy. They are just prejudiced."

He also revealed a "funny" incident on stage that year. Ang Lee shared: "I won Best Director, and now there was only Best Film left. When I was about to leave the stage, they called me back and said stay there. This was my moment. Everyone believed I would win, so just stay there."

When asked who told him to stay backstage and whether they were allowed to do so, the director replied: "A stage manager. Probably. He signaled me right next to the curtain. From below people could almost see me in that position. I could also see some of the audience, it was very close."

But when Jack Nicholson stepped out to present the award, 10 seconds later the winning film was Crash . However, Love Behind the Mountain also won 3 separate victories, including Best Adapted Screenplay for Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana from the short story by Annie Proulx, Best Original Score for Gustavo Santaolalla and Best Director for Ang Lee.

Director Ang Lee (left) on the set of Love Behind the Mountain

Ang Lee revealed that he is also used to losing Oscars, because his films often deal with "people on the margins". He believes that works like Love Behind the Mountain , or with a strong Oriental theme like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, are not what the Academy likes, despite their recent efforts to be more diverse.

"With my complicated background, I've always felt like an outsider," he said. "So maybe the repressed characters (or stories) attracted me. I have nothing in common with the gay cowboys in Wyoming. But why did I cry? Because it's haunting. It's a beautiful story."

In 2015, when The Hollywood Reporter polled hundreds of Academy members and asked which year they would vote for if they could vote again for any season in history, more members voted for Love Behind the Mountain than Crash.

At the time of the untitled Love Behind the Mountain , many criticized the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ decision, calling the cold-blooded move blatantly homophobic. When asked if he believed the film should lose Best Picture for that reason, Lee replied: “I think so, yes.”

On April 8, he will receive an honorary award from New York University, where he studied, at a gala at the Tisch School of the Arts.

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