HOLLYWOOD, March 10, 2006  –  In an unprecedented show of support for the gay love story Brokeback Mountain, a website discussion board has spearheaded a campaign to collect donations from around the world to place ads in trade and national publications in support of the movie.

During the first 48 hours, the group raised nearly $16,000 from over 400 contributors, and a team of volunteers designed a full page colour ad to run in today’s (March 10) Daily Variety.

The ad campaign was started by members at the Ultimate Brokeback Forum as a positive way to deal with their emotions surrounding Brokeback Mountain’s loss for Best Picture at the Academy Awards on Sunday.

Instead of responding in anger, members wanted to find a way to thank the cast and crew of the film and to find a way to highlight the film’s unprecedented string of Best Picture wins.

The disparate group quickly decided to start an ad campaign, and soon word spread to other sites, and donations started to pour in from around the world.

“I think most fans of the film were stunned by the Best Picture surprise, which raised the question of how and why the Academy could have been so out of sync with virtually every other organization that awarded Best Picture honours,” site organiser Dave Cullen said in explaining why so many diverse people worldwide were donating to the campaign.

According to industry watchers, no movie has generated this sort of fan response after a loss for Best Picture.  Fans are happy their support for Brokeback Mountain is becoming part of industry lore.

They hope that others looking for a way to honour Brokeback Mountain as the Best Picture of 2005 will contribute to the campaign, so more ads can run to help raise awareness that the film garnered nearly every Best Picture award bestowed for 2005.

“Only one major organisation did not name Brokeback Mountain as Best Picture,” says campaign chair Peter Greyson.

In part, this one snub for Best Picture was why those involved with the campaign wanted to send a clear message that Brokeback Mountain was embraced by people around the world as well as highlight their gratitude for the film and remind people of the spirit of the film as expressed by Ang Lee: “[Jack and Ennis] taught all of us who made Brokeback Mountain so much about not just all the gay men and women whose love is denied by society, but just as important, the greatness of love itself.”

The Ultimate Brokeback Forum has more than 2,500 members and, in only three months of operation, is averaging 12,000 unique visitors each day and over 200,000 page views.