Director says race-themed drama starring Matt Dillon and Sandra Bullock was not the best film that year compared with Brokeback Mountain and Munich

It is considered one of the more unlikely Oscar-winners of recent times, a film that triumphed over heralded competition such as Brokeback Mountain, Munich, Capote, and Good Night, and Good Luck. It also faced criticism for what some considered to be racial stereotyping. Now director Paul Haggis has admitted his film Crash did not deserve to win the 2005 Academy award for best film.

Interviewed by Hitfix, Haggis dismissed criticism over the movie’s treatment of ethnicity, suggesting he had intended to draw the viewer into prejudiced reactions to racially charged scenarios, before subverting them.

“What I decided to do early on was present stereotypes for the first 30 minutes,” he said. “It’s fine, you can think these things. You can laugh at these people. We all know Hispanics park their cars on a lawn, and we all know that Asians can’t drive in the dark. I know you’re a big liberal, but it’s OK, nobody’s going to see you laugh.

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“As soon as I made you feel comfortable, I could very slowly start turning you around in the seat, so I left you spinning as you walked out of the movie theatre. That was the intent.

“So when the criticism came later – ‘Oh my God, it’s full of stereotypes’ – I went: ‘Oh my God, you’re a genius. Really? Wow! That’s remarkable, really! I should have corrected that.’ No. So when you’re doing something that’s different, I think people are always going to say things, but it amused me more than anything.”

Haggis said his ensemble drama, which also won him the best director Oscar, did not deserve to win best film given the standard of the competition a decade ago.

“Was it the best film of the year? I don’t think so,” he said. “There were great films that year. Good Night, and Good Luck – amazing film. Capote – terrific film. Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain, great film. And Spielberg’s Munich. I mean please, what a year.

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“Crash, for some reason, affected people, it touched people. And you can’t judge these films like that. I’m very glad to have those Oscars. They’re lovely things. But you shouldn’t ask me what the best film of the year was because I wouldn’t be voting for Crash, only because I saw the artistry that was in the other films.

“Now however, for some reason that’s the film that touched people the most that year. So I guess that’s what they voted for, something that really touched them. And I’m very proud of the fact that Crash does touch you. People still come up to me more than any of my films and say: ‘That film just changed my life.’ I’ve heard that dozens and dozens and dozens of times. So it did its job there. I mean, I knew it was the social experiment that I wanted, so I think it’s a really good social experiment. Is it a great film? I don’t know.”

Crash boasts the lowest critical rating of all the 2005 nominees for best picture, its 75% fresh score on the critical aggregator Rotten Tomatoes contrasting with 93% for George Clooney’s Good Night, and Good Luck, 90% for Capote, 87% for Brokeback Mountain and 78% for Munich.

The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw gave Haggis’s film a three-star review in August 2005, writing: “Crash is a very watchable and well-constructed piece of work, and a potential script masterclass: but its daringly supercharged fantasies of racial paranoia and humanist redemption are not to be taken too seriously.”