80th Academy Awards

The 80th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2007 and took place on February 24, 2008, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles beginning at 5:30 p.m. PST / 8:30 p.m. EST. During the ceremony, AMPAS presented Academy Awards (commonly referred to as Oscars) in 24 categories. The ceremony was televised in the United States by ABC, and produced by Gil Cates and directed by Louis J, Horvitz.[4][5] Actor Jon Stewart hosted the show for the second time, having previously presided over the 78th ceremony held in 2006.[6] Two weeks earlier in a gala at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, California held on February 9, the Academy Awards for Technical Achievement were presented by host Jessica Alba.[7]

80th Academy Awards
Official poster
DateFebruary 24, 2008
SiteKodak Theatre
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Hosted byJon Stewart
Preshow hostsSamantha Harris
Regis Philbin
Shaun Robinson[1]
Produced byGil Cates
Directed byLouis J. Horvitz
Highlights
Best PictureNo Country for Old Men
Most awardsNo Country for Old Men (4)
Most nominationsNo Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood (8)
TV in the United States
NetworkABC
Duration3 Hours, 21 minutes[2]
Ratings31.7 million
18.7% (Nielsen ratings)[3]

No Country for Old Men won the most awards of the ceremony with four including Best Picture.[8][9] Other winners included The Bourne Ultimatum with three awards, La Vie en Rose (La môme) and There Will Be Blood with two awards, and Atonement, The Counterfeiters, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Freeheld, The Golden Compass, Juno, Michael Clayton, The Mozart of Pickpockets, Once, Peter & the Wolf, Ratatouille, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, and Taxi to the Dark Side with one. The telecast garnered 31 million viewers, making it the least watched Oscar broadcast since 1974, when Nielsen began keeping records of viewership.[10]

Winners and nominees

The nominations were announced on January 22, 2008, at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, California by Sid Ganis, president of the Academy, and actress Kathy Bates.[11] No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood tied for the most nominations with eight each.[12]

The winners were announced during the award ceremony of February 24, 2008.[13] Best Director winners Joel and Ethan Coen became the second pair of directors to win the award for the same film. Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise first accomplished this feat for co-directing 1961's West Side Story.[14] This was also the second time in Oscar history (the first being 1964's 37th Academy Awards) that none of the four acting winners was American.[15] Daniel Day-Lewis became the eighth person to win Best Actor twice.[16] Best Actress winner Marion Cotillard was the fifth person to win for a non-English speaking performance and the second person to do so in the aforementioned category, after Sophia Loren who won for 1961's Two Women.[17] Cate Blanchett became the eleventh performer to receive double acting nominations in the same year.[18][19] By virtue of her nomination for her role as the title character in Elizabeth: The Golden Age, she also was the first actress and fifth performer overall to be nominated for portraying the same character in two different films (she previously earned a nomination for playing Queen Elizabeth I of England in 1998's Elizabeth).[20] At age 82, Best Supporting Actor nominee Hal Holbrook was at the time, the oldest male acting nominee in Oscar history until Christopher Plummer was nominated for All the Money in the World in the 90th Academy Awards.[21] Robert F. Boyle became the oldest recipient of the Academy Honorary award at the age of 98.[22]

Awards
Coen brothers, Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay winners
Daniel Day-Lewis, Best Actor winner
Marion Cotillard, Best Actress winner
Javier Bardem, Best Supporting Actor winner
Tilda Swinton, Best Supporting Actress winner
Diablo Cody, Best Original Screenplay winner
Brad Bird, Best Animated Feature winner
Stefan Ruzowitzky, Best Foreign Language Film winner
Alex Gibney, Best Documentary Feature co-winner
Glen Hansard, Best Original Song co-winner

Winners are listed first, highlighted in boldface, and indicated with a double dagger ().[23]

Best Foreign Language Film
Best Sound Mixing

Academy Honorary Award

Films with multiple nominations and awards

Presenters and performers

The following individuals presented awards or performed musical numbers.[25][26][27][28][29]

Presenters
Name(s) Role
Tom Kane
Randy Thomas[30]		 Co-announcers for the 80th annual Academy Awards
Jennifer Garner Presented the award for Best Costume Design
George Clooney Presenter of the Academy Awards history montage
Steve Carell
Anne Hathaway		 Presenters of the award for Best Animated Feature Film
Katherine Heigl Presenter of the award for Best Makeup
Jon Stewart Introducer of the performance of Best Original Song nominee "Happy Working Song"
Dwayne Johnson Presenter of the award for Best Visual Effects
Cate Blanchett Presenter of the award for Best Art Direction
Jennifer Hudson Presenter of the award for Best Supporting Actor
Keri Russell Introducer of the performance of Best Original Song nominee "Raise It Up"
Owen Wilson Presenter of the award for Best Live Action Short Film
Barry B. Benson Presenter of the award for Best Animated Short Film
Alan Arkin Presenter of the award for Best Supporting Actress
Jessica Alba Presenter of the segment of the Scientific and Technical Awards and the Gordon E. Sawyer Award
Josh Brolin
James McAvoy		 Presenters of the award for Best Adapted Screenplay
Sid Ganis Presenter of a special segment explaining the Oscar selection process
Miley Cyrus Introducer of the performance of Best Original Song nominee "That's How You Know"
Jonah Hill
Seth Rogen		 Presenters of the awards for Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing
Colin Farrell Introducer of the performance of Best Original Song nominee "Falling Slowly"
Jack Nicholson Presenter of the Best Picture winners montage
Renée Zellweger Presenter of the award for Best Film Editing
Nicole Kidman Presenter of the Honorary Academy Award to Robert F. Boyle
Penélope Cruz Presenter of the award for Best Foreign Language Film
Patrick Dempsey Introducer of the performance Best Original Song nominee of "So Close"
John Travolta Presenter of the award for Best Original Song
Cameron Diaz Presenter of the award for Best Cinematography
Hilary Swank Presenter of the In Memoriam segment
Amy Adams Presenter of the award for Best Original Score
Tom Hanks
Spc. Charles Highland
Sgt. Andrea Knudsen
Officer 3rd Class Joseph Smith
Lt. Curtis Williamson
Sgt. Kenji Thuloweit[31]		 Presenters of the award for Best Documentary Short Subject
Tom Hanks Presenter of the award for Best Documentary Feature
Harrison Ford Presenter of the award for Best Original Screenplay
Helen Mirren Presenter of the award for Best Actor
Forest Whitaker Presenter of the award for Best Actress
Martin Scorsese Presenter of the award for Best Director
Denzel Washington Presenter of the award for Best Picture

Performers
Name(s) Role Performed
Bill Conti Musical Arranger
Conductor		 Orchestral
Amy Adams Performer "Happy Working Song" from Enchanted
Impact Repertory Theatre
Jamia Simone Nash		 Performers "Raise It Up" from August Rush
Kristin Chenoweth
Marlon Saunders		 Performers "That's How You Know" from Enchanted
Glen Hansard
Markéta Irglová		 Performers "Falling Slowly" from Once
Jon McLaughlin Performer "So Close" from Enchanted

Ceremony information
Jon Stewart hosted the 80th Academy Awards.

In September 2007, the Academy hired Gil Cates to oversee production of the telecast for a record 14th time.[32] Ganis explained his decision to hire Cates as producer stating, "He's so talented...so creative and inventive, and so enormously passionate about the Oscars. All of that will again translate into a night that people can't wait to experience."[32] Immediately, Cates selected actor, comedian, and talk-show host Jon Stewart as host of the 2008 ceremony. "Jon was a terrific host for the 78th Awards," Cates said about Stewart in a press release. "He is smart, quick, funny, loves movies and is a great guy. What else could one ask for?"[33]

Furthermore, the 2007–08 Writers Guild of America strike affected the telecast and its surrounding events.[34] Over a month after the labor dispute began, the striking Writers Guild of America (WGA) denied a waiver requested by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in connection with film clips and excerpts from previous award ceremonies to be shown at the 2008 awards.[35] The material could have been used, as the denial only affected the conditions under which the clips are shown.[36] Previously, the 60th ceremony held in 1988 occurred 37 days after that year's writers strike began. At the time, material was already completed in anticipation for the strike, and actors were in full attendance of the ceremony.[37][38]

In anticipation that the strike would continue through Oscar night, AMPAS developed a Plan B show that would not have included actors accepting their awards.[39] It would have included the musical numbers, but would have relied heavily on historic film clips, emphasizing the 80th anniversary of the awards.[40] However, both the WGA and Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) reached an agreement effectively ending the strike on February 12, 2008, and the ceremony proceeded under its normal format.[41]

Box office performance of nominated films

Continuing a trend in recent years, the field of major nominees favored independent, low-budget films over blockbusters.[42][43] The combined gross of the five Best Picture nominees when the Oscars were announced was $217 million; the average gross per film was $43.3 million.[44]

None of the five Best Picture nominees was among the top ten releases in box office during the nominations. When the nominations were announced on January 22, Juno was the highest earner among the Best Picture nominees with $87.1 million in domestic box office receipts.[18] The film was followed by No Country for Old Men ($48.9 million), Michael Clayton ($39.4 million), Atonement ($32.7 million), and finally There Will Be Blood ($8.7 million).[45]

Out of the top 50 grossing movies of the year (prior to announcement), 29 nominations went to 12 films on the list. Only Ratatouille (9th), American Gangster (18th), Juno (31st), Charlie Wilson's War (39th), and Surf's Up (41st) received nominations for Best Picture, Best Animated Feature, directing, acting, or screenwriting.[46] The other top-50 box office hits that earned nominations were Transformers (3rd), Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (4th), The Bourne Ultimatum (7th), Enchanted (20th), Norbit (29th), The Golden Compass (37th), and 3:10 to Yuma (45th).[46]

Critical reviews

The show received a mixed reception from media publications. Some media outlets were more critical of the show. The Washington Post television critic Tom Shales quipped that the ceremony was "Overstocked with clips from movies -- from this year's nominees and from Oscar winners going back to 1929 -- that it was like a TV show with the hiccups."[47] Columnist James Poniewozik of Time commented that Stewart was "an Oscar host–sometimes a funny one, but a pretty conventional one, whose routine was loaded up with kiss-up softballs about how hot Colin Farrell is, what range Cate Blanchett has and what a tomcat Jack Nicholson is." Of the show itself, he wrote, "What we got instead was a show that half the time seemed like the show the Academy would have put on if there had been a strike, chockful of montages. The other half of the time, it was an typical-to-dull Oscars."[48] Columnist Robert Bianco of USA Today said, "Has it ever felt like more of a padded bore than it did Sunday night? If so, blame the writers' strike, which left the producers with only a few weeks to prepare for the ABC broadcast and persuaded them to lean less on the host and more on old clips." He also observed that numerous film montages seemed to diminish Stewart's job as host.[49]

The majority of other media outlets received the broadcast more positively. Television critic Matthew Gilbert of the Boston Globe gave an average critique of the ceremony but praised Stewart writing that "It was good to see Jon Stewart being Jon Stewart. He is shaping up to be a dependable Oscar host for the post-Billy Crystal years. He's not musical, but he's versatile enough to swing smoothly between jokes about politics, Hollywood, new media, and, most importantly, hair."[50] Variety columnist Brian Lowry lauded Stewart's performance noting that he "earned his keep by maintaining a playful, irreverent tone throughout the night, whether it was jesting about Cate Blanchett's versatility or watching Lawrence of Arabia on an iPhone screen."[2] Frazier Moore from the Associated Press commended Stewart's improvement from his first hosting stint commenting, "He proved equal to the challenge posed by Oscarcast's quick turnaround. His crash-deadline material worked. And even when it didn't, he was genial, relaxed, and seemed utterly at home." In addition, he quipped that although there was a lack of surprise amongst the winners, he marveled "The evening was plenty elegant. The stage setting was handsome. The orchestra sounded full and lush. Everyone behaved."[51]

Ratings and reception

The American telecast on ABC drew in an average of 32 million people over its length, which was a 21% decrease from the previous year's ceremony.[3] An estimated 64 million total viewers watched all or part of the awards.[52] The show also earned lower Nielsen ratings compared to the previous ceremony with 18.7% of households watching over a 29 share.[53] In addition, it garnered a lower 18–49 demo rating with a 10.7 rating over a 26 share among viewers in that demographic.[54] Many media outlets pointed out that the Writers Guild strike and the niche popularity amongst the field of major nominees contributed to the low ratings.[55][56] It earned the lowest viewership for an Academy Award telecast since figures were compiled beginning with the 46th ceremony in 1974.[10]

In July 2008, the ceremony presentation received nine nominations at the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards.[57] Two months later, the ceremony won two of those nominations for Outstanding Art Direction (Roy Christopher and Joe Celli) and Outstanding Directing for a Variety, Music, or Comedy Program (Louis J. Horvitz).[58][59]

In Memoriam

The annual In Memoriam tribute, presented by actress Hilary Swank, honored the following people:[60]

gollark: Also, this is weird: I'm trying to figure out why my laptop's WiFi latency is weirdly high, so I ran `watch iw dev wlan0 link` to try and see what it's doing, and the "rx bitrate" randomly drops to 6Mbit/s quite often.
gollark: Are you making a modified server for some reason? If you have some useful changes I could port them to the Rust version.
gollark: Not particularly, no.
gollark: Updating it to support the new CBOR protocol would honestly not be that hard, I just had no real reason to.
gollark: Are you doing something with the node version?

See also

References
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  2. Lowry, Brian (February 24, 2008). "The 80th Annual Academy Awards — From Your Couch". Variety. Penske Media Corporation. Retrieved February 25, 2008.
  3. Bowles, Scott (February 25, 2008). "Low Oscar ratings cue soul-searching". USA Today. Gannett Company. Retrieved September 21, 2008.
  4. O'Connor, Thomas (September 12, 2007). "Cates tapped for record 14th Oscars telecast". Chicago Sun-Times. Sun Times Media Group. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved May 29, 2013.
  5. Kivel, Matthew (December 19, 2007). "Oscar director back a 12th time". Variety. Penske Media Corporation. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
  6. Cieply, Michael (September 12, 2007). "Academy to Invite Jon Stewart Back as Oscar Host". The New York Times. Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr. Retrieved May 28, 2013.
  7. Pearson, Ryan (February 11, 2008). "Alba dazzles nerds at tech Oscars". USA Today. Gannett Company. Retrieved February 13, 2008.
  8. Halbfinger, David; Cieply, Michael (February 25, 2008). "'No Country for Old Men' Wins Oscar Tug of War". The New York Times. Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr. Retrieved September 21, 2008.
  9. Burr, Ty (February 25, 2008). "Foreign accents Cotillard, Swinton, Bardem take top awards in a surprising night in Hollywood". The Boston Globe. John W. Henry.
  10. Finke, Nikki (February 25, 2008). "Update: Wow, Worst-Rated Oscars Since Nielsen Started Tracking Them in 1974!". Deadline Hollywood (Penske Media Corporation). Retrieved February 24, 2014.
  11. Gray, Tim (January 22, 2008). "Oscar nominations announced". Variety. Penske Media Corporation. Retrieved June 26, 2014.
  12. Barnes, Brooks (January 23, 2008). "'No Country' and 'There Will Be Blood' Lead Oscars". The New York Times. Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr. Retrieved June 26, 2014.
  13. Kennedy, Lisa (February 25, 2008). "Having no dominant film seems fair". The Denver Post. Mac Tully. Retrieved January 2, 2016.
  14. Coyle, Jake (February 25, 2008). "Oscars Honor Coens As Best Director(s)". USA Today. Gannett Company. Retrieved June 27, 2014.
  15. O'Neil, Tom (February 24, 2008). "Oscar invasion!". Los Angeles Times. Austin Beutner. Retrieved April 11, 2008.
  16. O'Neil, Tom (February 24, 2008). "Day-Lewis is 8th double Oscar lead actor". Los Angeles Times. Austin Beutner. Retrieved April 11, 2014.
  17. Gallo, Phil (February 24, 2008). "'No Country' big winner at Oscars". Variety. Penske Media Corporation. Retrieved September 21, 2008.
  18. Karger, Dave (January 25, 2008). "The unpredictable 2008 Oscars". Entertainment Weekly. Time Inc. Retrieved February 3, 2008.
  19. "A little help from his friends". National Post. Postmedia Network. Retrieved January 22, 2016.
  20. Oscars: 6 Actors Nominated for Playing the Same Character Twice Other actors nominated for the same character in multiple films were

    Paul Newman for "Fast Eddie" Felson in The Hustler and The Color of Money;

    Al Pacino for Michael Corleone in The Godfather and The Godfather Part II;

    Peter O'Toole for King Henry II in Becket and The Lion in Winter;

    Bing Crosby for Father O'Malley in Going My Way and The Bells of St. Mary's;

    and later, Sylvester Stallone for Rocky and Creed

  21. "Academy Award Nominee Hal Holbrook". NBC News (NBCUniversal). January 22, 2008. Retrieved June 27, 2014.
  22. "45 Fun Facts About the Oscars". Parade. Condé Nast. February 26, 2012. Retrieved June 27, 2014.
  23. "The 80th (2008) Academy Awards". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). Retrieved December 22, 2015.
  24. McCarthy, Libby (December 12, 2007). "Boyle to receive honorary Oscar". Variety. Penske Media Corporation. Retrieved February 3, 2014.
  25. "Oscars: Always great television". Variety. Penske Media Corporation. February 24, 2008. Retrieved September 29, 2014.
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  27. Travers, Peter (February 24, 2008). "Oscars 2008: The Live Blog". Rolling Stone. Jann Wenner. Retrieved December 22, 2015.
  28. Burlingame, Jon (February 25, 2008). "Score, Song Oscars to Marianelli, Hansard and Irglova". The Film Music Society. Retrieved December 22, 2015.
  29. White, Dave (February 24, 2008). "Let 'er rip: Blogging the Oscars". NBC News (NBCUniversal). Retrieved December 22, 2015.
  30. Terrance 2013, p. 14
  31. McGarry, Brendan (February 25, 2008). "Service members announce award at Oscars". Army Times. Gannett Company. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
  32. "Cates to produce Academy Awards". The Hollywood Reporter. Prometheus Global Media. September 11, 2007. Retrieved June 28, 2014.
  33. Piccalo, Gina (September 13, 2007). "Jon Stewart gets an Oscar sequel". Los Angeles Times. Austin Beutner. Retrieved June 28, 2014.
  34. Cohen, Sandy (November 14, 2007). "Awards shows could suffer in WGA strike". USA Today. Gannett Company. Retrieved May 29, 2013.
  35. McNairy, Dave (December 17, 2007). "WGA rejects waiver requests". Variety. Penske Media Corporation. Retrieved July 1, 2014.
  36. Finke, Nikki (December 17, 2007). "No WGA Waivers For Globes Or Oscars (And Other News From Tonight's Meeting); AMPTP Nominates WGA For "Worst Union"". Deadline Hollywood (Penske Media Corporation). Retrieved June 4, 2013.
  37. Killday (February 8, 2008). "Oscar has experience with strike-related uncertainty". The Hollywood Reporter. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved February 3, 2014.
  38. Cieply, Michael (April 12, 1988). "'Last Emperor' Reigns Over Oscar Ceremonies : Best Picture Winner Adds Eight Other Awards; Cher and Douglas Take Top Prizes for Acting". Los Angeles Times. Austin Beutner. Retrieved June 4, 2013.
  39. Gensler, Howard (January 31, 2008). "Plan B being developed for Oscar night". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Philadelphia Media Network. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
  40. Bierly, Mandi (February 24, 2008). "Oscars to go on, possibly with 'packages of film and concepts". Entertainment Weekly. Time Warner. Retrieved June 4, 2013.
  41. Horn, John; Piccalo, Gina (February 12, 2008). "Oscars just glad to be scrambling". Los Angeles Times. Austin Beutner. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
  42. Goldstein, Patrick (January 23, 2008). "Once again, the indies will rule". Los Angeles Times. Austin Beutner. Retrieved July 1, 2014.
  43. Carr, David (March 3, 2008). "In Oscars, No Country for Hit Films". The New York Times. Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr. Retrieved July 1, 2014.
  44. "2007 Academy Awards Nominations and Winner for Best Picture". Box Office Mojo (Amazon.com). Retrieved May 15, 2013.
  45. "2006 Academy Award Nominations and Winner for Best Picture". Box Office Mojo (Amazon.com). Retrieved January 30, 2014.
  46. "2007 Yearly Box Office Results (January 21, 2008)". Box Office Mojo (Amazon.com). Retrieved August 22, 2013.
  47. Shales, Tom (February 25, 2008). "Oscar Viewers Got Clipped, In More Ways Than One". The Washington Post. The Washington Post Company. Retrieved July 1, 2014.
  48. Poniewozik, James (February 25, 2008). "Oscars Defeat Jon Stewart". Time. Time Warner. Retrieved July 1, 2014.
  49. Bianco, Robert (February 25, 2008). "The Latest Strike Casualty: This Show". USA Today. Gannett Company. Retrieved February 3, 2014.
  50. Gilbert, Matthew (February 25, 2008). "Looking back doesn't help show look good". The Boston Globe. John W. Henry. Retrieved September 21, 2008.
  51. Moore, Frazier (February 25, 2008). "The writers were back for the Oscarcast, but this show was nothing to write home about". The Press Democrat. Sonoma Media Investments LLC. Retrieved November 4, 2008.
  52. De Moraes, Lisa (February 26, 2008). "Box-Office Blues Make for an Oscar Washout". The Washington Post. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
  53. Bialik, Carl (February 26, 2008). "And the Oscar Goes to... Fewer TV Viewers". The Wall Street Journal. News Corp. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
  54. Kissell, Rick (February 26, 2008). "'Idol' wins over Oscar in ratings". Variety. Penske Media Corporation. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
  55. Collins, Scott (February 26, 2008). "TV ratings hit new low". Los Angeles Times. Tribune Company. Retrieved September 22, 2008.
  56. Smith, Sean (February 29, 2008). "Oscar's dropping ratings". Entertainment Weekly. Time Inc. Retrieved July 1, 2014.
  57. "Primetime Emmy Award database". Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (ATAS). Retrieved January 14, 2014.
  58. "2008 Emmy winners". USA Today. Gannett Company. September 21, 2008. Retrieved June 30, 2014.
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  60. O'Neil, Tom (February 24, 2008). "In Memoriam: Oscar winners". Los Angeles Times. Tribune Company. Retrieved July 17, 2008.

Bibliography
  • Terrance, Vincent (2013). Television Specials: 5,336 Entertainment Programs, 1936–2012 (5 ed.). Jefferson, North Carolina, United States: Ballantine Books, McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-1-4766-1240-9. OCLC 844373010.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
Official websites
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