All five of this year's best picture nominees are underdog stories (even Steven Spielberg's Munich was a risky proposition, as is being borne out at the box office), but none took such a long, unlikely path to the Oscars as Crash. 

Here's a movie that no studio or independent distributor wanted to make and few wanted to pick up once it actually was finished. This racism-themed ensemble drama was a surprise box office hit after its release at the cusp of the summer blockbuster season, but it had received little end-of-the-year awards attention until a few days in early January catapulted it into the thick of the Oscar race.