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Early on in the evening, just before the main Oscar event and during the red carpet parade, the ever-cheery Dolly Parton intoned her TransAmerican mantra, “Accept each other as we are”, to movie critic Roger Ebert. Happily, no one paid attention to reporter Richard Roeper’s clumsy and clueless description of the film as being about someone going through “that transgender thing”. Can’t Oscar’s red carpet media personalities at least do their homework?

The ever-politically-conscious Lauren Hutton told the ever-patronizing Joan Rivers that security on the red carpet was tight due to the large and noisy crowd of Brokeback protestors gathered outside the velvet ropes and just out of sight.

Jake Gyllenhaal revealed to the red carpet interviewers how sick he was of answering questions about what it was like kissing Heath Ledger.  Heath Ledger named his wife Brokeback co-star Michelle Williams (they met and fell in love on the set of Brokeback) and his new baby as the most meaningful things he gotten from his Brokeback experience.

In the heady days leading up to the Academy Awards night, Brokeback Mountain, Capote and TransAmerica have garnered accolades and awards all around the world. Additionally, Brokeback has continued to generate moral, cultural and even political controversy. It has also spawned a seemingly endless array of now-tiresome gay cowboy jokes.

On the day before the Oscars, each of the three films won two awards at the Independent Spirit Awards. The Independent Spirit Awards, now in their 21st year, honor low-budget films based on such criteria as original, provocative subject matter and the degree of independent financing. The ISA’s are organized by Film Independent, a group that nurtures indie filmmakers, and winners are determined by the group's 9,000 members nationwide.

Brokeback lassoed the two top ISA prizes - best Feature and Director (Ang Lee). Capote also won doubles, with Philip Seymour Hoffman grabbing Best Male Lead and Hoffman's childhood pal Dan Futterman winning the award for Best Screenplay. Not to be upstaged, Transamerica grabbed a female lead win for Felicity Huffman and a Best First Screenplay for Duncan Tucker.

Lee has said he never dreamed the modestly produced Brokeback Mountain would become such a "cultural phenomenon" in the United States. Although the Academy Awards generally favor big studio films, this year proved the exception as "Brokeback Mountain" has swept virtually every awards show in its path. Chugging along steadily on its path to glory, Brokeback is truly the little gay indie that could.

At the ISA awards Huffman said she was happy that Transamerica was bringing "inclusiveness and understanding (to) people that are disenfranchised."

Brokeback Mountain was also the big winner at the recent Baftas ceremony, receiving four awards, for Best Film, Adapted Screenplay, Direction (Ang Lee) and Actor In A Supporting Role.

A gleeful Gyllenhaal was visibly taken aback by his Baftas award for Best Supporting Actor. "Who would have thought this would happen?" he said from the stage. "It's just a pleasure to be a part of this movie and I can't even believe I've got this for it."

As reported in the Associated Press, Gyllenhaal told reporters backstage, "I've had a lot of people say to me after the film, to my surprise, 'Thank you for making it,'"

As in the Oscars, Heath Ledger was beaten out in the Best Actor category by Capote’s Philip Seymour Hoffman. Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana, who adapted Annie Proulx's short story, won the adapted screenplay prize.