Ang Lee won an Oscar for Best Director at the 85th annual Academy Awards.
Lee's Oscar win was for directing "Life of Pi."
The Best Director race was a confusing one for Oscar experts, if only because the director most honored throughout awards season wasn't eligible for the award. Ben Affleck, who directed "Argo," won Best Director awards from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (Golden Globes), Directors Guild of America and BAFTA; he was famously left off the Oscar ballot, however, when nominations were announced on Jan. 10.
That opened the door for Lee to win his second Oscar. He previously won at the 2006 ceremony for directing "Brokeback Mountain."
"Thank you, movie god," Lee said while accepting his Oscar from Jane Fonda and Michael Douglas.
The director spent four years making "Life of Pi," which is based on the novel by Yann Martel. The film focuses on a young man (newcomer Suraj Sharma) who survives a ship wreck and winds up on a life boat with a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. The film, which was released in 3D, uses many visual effects tricks and techniques.
Lee's Oscar win left fellow nominees Michael Haneke ("Amour"), David O. Russell ("Silver Linings Playbook"), Spielberg ("Lincoln") and Benh Zeitlin ("Beasts of the Southern Wild") empty handed.
Last year, Michel Hazanavicius won Best Director for "The Artist."
For more on the Oscars' 2013 ceremony, including a full list of Academy Awards winners, check out the live blog below.
