78th Academy Awards

78th Academy Awards
Official poster
Date	March 5, 2006
Site	Kodak Theatre Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Hosted by	Jon Stewart
Preshow host(s)	Billy Bush Chris Connelly Cynthia Garrett Vanessa Minnillo
Produced by	Gil Cates
Directed by	Louis J. Horvitz
Highlights
Best Picture	Crash
Most awards	Brokeback Mountain, Crash, King Kong, and Memoirs of a Geisha (3)
Most nominations	Brokeback Mountain (8)
TV in the United States
Network	ABC
Duration	3 hours, 33 minutes
Ratings	38.94 million 23.0% (Nielsen ratings)
← 77th Academy Awards 79th →

The 78th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), took place on March 5, 2006, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles beginning at 5:00 p.m. PST / 8:00 p.m. EST. The ceremony was scheduled one week later than usual to avoid conflicting with the 2006 Winter Olympics. During the ceremony, AMPAS presented Academy Awards (commonly referred to as Oscars) in 24 categories honoring films released in 2005. The ceremony, televised in the United States by ABC, was produced by Gil Cates and directed by Louis J. Horvitz. Actor Jon Stewart hosted the show for the first time. Two weeks earlier in a ceremony at The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California held on February 18, the Academy Awards for Technical Achievement were presented by host Rachel McAdams.

Crash won three awards including Academy Award for Best Picture. Other winners included Brokeback Mountain, King Kong, and Memoirs of a Geisha also with three awards apiece, and Capote, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Constant Gardener, Hustle and Flow, March of the Penguins, The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation, A Note of Triumph: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin, Six Shooter, Syriana, Tsotsi, Walk the Line, and Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit with one each. The telecast garnered nearly 39 million viewers in the United States.