'Life Of Pi' Wins Best Director For Ang Lee, Three More Oscars

It was a big night for Ang Lee's Life of Pi, the film based on the fantasy-adventure novel by Yann Martel, which was considered unfilmable before Lee brought it to life on the big screen. Life of Pi won an impressive four Oscars, including a surprising Best Actor nod for Lee.

"I thought this was a pretty impossible movie to make technically," Lee told the Chicago Sun-Times. "It's so expensive for what it is. You sort of have to disguise a philosophical book as an adventure story. I thought of 3D half a year before Avatar as on the screen. I thought water, with its transparency and reflection, the way it comes out to you in 3D, would create a new theatrical experience, and maybe the audience or the studio would open up their minds a little bit to accept something different."

And accept they did. The 3D experience of Life of Pi led to strong box office earnings — $113 million in the United States and $470 million internationally.

In addition to Best Director, Life of Pi took home Best Cinematography, Best Visual Effects, and Best Original Score. Lee's director award marks his first Oscar and his second nomination, the first being for 2005's Brokeback Mountain.

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