This image was lost some time after publication.

After spending the last 24 hours or so self-inflicting paper cuts with a copy of the Crash script (the pages where Sandra Bullock is paranoid about her Mexican locksmith hurt the best) and seasoning the fresh wounds with a generous amount of table salt, we think we're ready to read some analysis about how Paul Haggis' little-race-fable-that-could pulled of its upset. Sure, you can blame actors, who were targeted with many of the 130,000 screeners the studio sent out, and who represent 22% of the Academy's voting members. But credit Lionsgate's Tom Ortenberg for his Rovian (this year, a better choice than the excess of a Weinsteinesque blitz) campaign strategy. Says The Envelope:

"The two most important things about our campaign were getting 'Crash' to be seen by everyone who needed to see it and then reminding them of how 'Crash' made them feel," said Tom Ortenberg, president of Lionsgate Theatrical Films.

The logic was to "win" the city, while counting on voters in the rest of the nation, mainly the New York contingent, to split their votes among all five nominees, which also included "Capote," "Good Night, and Good Luck" and "Munich" as well as "Brokeback."

Ortenberg said Lionsgate never intentionally ceded other parts of the country. But as a company with limited resources, he said, it had to focus on L.A.

Really, the idea was nothing short of brilliant, if not thoroughly original: Divide the country into White Guilt and Pink "States," and then mercilessly target those easily manipulated by remembering the shame Crash made them feel. Cynical? Maybe. But the results speak for themselves.