Director Ang Lee's gay love story Brokeback Mountain nabbed the best film title at the 2005 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards on Saturday. 

The annual Film Critics Award is one of the most important film awards of the Oscar season. The award ceremony will be held on January 17th in Los Angeles.

Brokeback Mountain also nabbed nominations in eight categories of the Critics Choice Awards on Sunday, including best film, best director for Ang Lee and best actor for Heath Ledger, giving the film an early boost in this year's Oscars race.

Winners of Critics Choice Awards are named on January 9th in the United States, which helps narrow the list of Oscar contenders annually.

The Oscars, the US film industry's top awards, will be given out by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on March 5th.

The tale of homosexual love between two cowboys set in the conservative West of the 1960s also pocketed the Best Director Award for Ang Lee at the Venice Film Festival in early September.

(CRI December 12, 2005)