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The 80th Academy Awards ceremony, honoring the best in film for 2007, was broadcast from the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, California on ABC beginning at 5:30 p.m. PST/8:30 p.m. EST, February 24, 2008 (01:30 February 25 UTC). During the ceremony, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented Academy Awards (commonly referred to as Oscars) in 24 categories. Gil Cates was the producer, making it his 14th show, a record.80th Annual Academy Awards Show Producer. Jon Stewart hosted the show, his second time. He previously presided over the 78th Academy Awards.Jon Stewart returns as Oscar host. BBC (2007-09-12). Retrieved on 2007-09-12. The ceremony was notably received as the lowest rated and least watched telecast to date.
The nominees were announced on January 22 at 5:38 a.m. PST (13:38 UTC) by Academy president Sid Ganis and actress Kathy Bates, at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in the Academy\'s Beverly Hills headquarters. No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood each received eight nominations.
No Country for Old Men dominated by winning four awards including Best Picture, Best Director and Adapted Screenplay (both awards for Joel and Ethan Coen), and Best Supporting Actor (Javier Bardem). For the first time since the 37th Academy Awards (1964), the Academy presented all four of the acting awards to non-American actors. This ceremony also continued trends of recent years, with no film winning more than four awards, the honors for non-documentary features being spread among 13 different films, and major acting honors going to a biographical film.
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This is a breakdown of winners of major awards categories only. For a complete list of nominees and winners, see 80th Academy Awards nominees and winners.
| Award | Winner | Film |
|---|---|---|
| Best Director | Joel Coen and Ethan Coen | No Country for Old Men |
| Award | Winner | Film |
|---|---|---|
| Best Writing - Original Screenplay | Diablo Cody | Juno |
| Best Writing - Adapted Screenplay | Joel Coen and Ethan Coen | No Country for Old Men |
| Award | Winner | Field |
|---|---|---|
| Academy Honorary Award | Robert F. Boyle | Art Direction |
The following 21 films received multiple nominations.
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The following four films received multiple awards.
Note 1: In a taped segment, the four nominees for Best Documentary Short Subject were named, and the winner announced, by six U.S. military servicemembers stationed in Baghdad, Iraq. (Four versions of the winning announcement were recorded, with the appropriate version indicated to the program\'s video engineer at the live event.) After the announcement of the winner, Tom Hanks presented the award to the winner in the theatre.http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20007870_20164474_20180773_8,00.html
Bill Conti was the musical arranger and the head orchestral conductor. Other performers included:
For the fourth consecutive year, the field of major nominees did not include a bona fide blockbuster at the U.S. box office, with the nominees for Best Picture performing even more poorly than those of the previous year, although slightly better than in 2005.
None of the five Best Picture nominees was among the year\'s top 30 releases in box office at the time of the nominations; at the time of the announcement on January 22, Juno was the highest earner among the Best Picture nominees with $87.1 million in domestic box office receipts (the film was the only Best Picture nominee of the five to earn more than $100 million before the ceremony date). The film was followed by No Country for Old Men which earned $48.9 million, Michael Clayton with $39.4 million, and Atonement with $32.7 million. There Will Be Blood rounded out the Best Picture nominees with $8.7 million. Out of the top 50 grossing movies of the year (prior to announcement), 30 nominations went to 11 films on the list. Only Ratatouille (11th), American Gangster (19th) , Juno (32nd), and Charlie Wilson\'s War (40th) received nominations for best picture, directing, acting, or screenwriting. The other top-50 box office hits that earned nominations were Transformers (3rd), Pirates of the Carribean: At World\'s End (4th), The Bourne Ultimatum (7th), Norbit (30th), The Golden Compass (38th), Surf\'s Up (42nd), and 3:10 to Yuma (45th).
For the third consecutive year, a majority of the Best Picture nominees were rated R (under 17 requires accompanying adult). Of the 88 nominations awarded to non-documentary feature films (apart from the Foreign Film category), a slight majority of 50 went to R-rated films, 29 to films rated PG-13, 4 to PG-rated films and 5 to a G-rated film. There was a remarkable rating-related division among the nominations: R-rated films captured 24 of the 40 nominations for Best Picture, directing, screenwriting and acting; while non-R-rated films received 26 of the 45 nominations in the remaining categories, primarily those in "below the line" areas.
Many news organizations have pointed out that numerous films nominated focused primarily on deeply grisly subjects such as greed, corruption, and violence. Films that prominently featured dark subjects included No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood, and Michael Clayton.
According an article printed in the Los Angeles Times, writer Patrick Goldstein notes
| “ | Shot in a deliberative, unsentimental style, No Country is a bone-chilling tale of violence, stupidity and revenge, with a relentless, amoral killer (played by supporting actor winner Javier Bardem) at its center, coolly dispatching anyone in his way with a cattle gun. It is not the only acclaimed movie to have emerged from a forbidding corner of the American psyche. Many of this year\'s most compelling movies -- notably, two other best picture nominees, There Will Be Blood and Michael Clayton, as well as American Gangster, Eastern Promises, Gone Baby Gone and The Bourne Ultimatum -- were meditations on violence, betrayal, revenge and grand ambition run amok. | ” |
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Another article, written by Press Democrat writer Rachel Abramowitz recapped the five Best Picture nominees:
| “ | So how do you like your America -- as a mildly flawed Mayberry or a seething pit of lies, corruption and greed? That\'s the battle shaping up at the 2008 Oscars, as films as brutal as "There Will Be Blood," "No Country for Old Men" and "Michael Clayton" line up against the sunny upstart "Juno" for the top prize. The entirely British, but equally dark, "Atonement" is the final film battling for the best picture spot. | ” |
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Host Jon Stewart observed this trend in his opening monologue when he asked "Does this town need a hug?"http://www.nationalpost.com/arts/movies/story.html?id=332258 In another reference to the four darker, dramatic films nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, he commented "Thank God for teen pregnancy."http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/25/movies/awardsseason/25osca.html?ref=todayspaper
For the fourth year in a row, no film received more than four awards. The honors for achievements in non-documentary features were spread among 13 different films. All the acting awards were presented to performers who were born outside of the United States. The last time this happened was in 1964. Daniel Day-Lewis is a British and Irish citizen, Tilda Swinton is from the UK, Marion Cotillard is from France, and Javier Bardem is from Spain.Associated Press, "80th Oscars a Dud, Preliminary Ratings Show 14 Percent Lower Than Least-Watched Ceremony", Feb. 25, 2008.
Marion Cotillard\'s win for her portrayal of Édith Piaf marked the third year in a row, and the seventh time in nine years, that the Best Actress award went to a performance in a biographical film, though the win by Day-Lewis was the first Best Actor nod in four years for playing a fictional character. Also, Cotillard became the second actress since Sophia Loren in 1961 to receive an Oscar for a non-English speaking role."\'No Country for Old Men\' takes Oscar for best picture", 2008-02-25. Overall Cotillard is the third performer to win for a non-English speaking role after both Loren and Roberto Benigni in 1998.Phillips, Michael. "Oscar winners: The Coen brothers take 4 statues", 2008-02-25. . She is also the second French actress in history, after Simone Signoret (Room At the Top, 1959), to win Best Actress at the Academy Awards.
Robert F. Boyle, at age 98, became the oldest recipient of the Honorary Academy Award.
The Coen brothers\' win for Best Director marks the second time the award was shared between two individuals for a single film. The first time was in 1961, when Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise earned Oscars for co-directing West Side Story.Associated Press, "Coen brothers make Oscar history", Feb. 25, 2008.
The telecast drew in an average of 31.76 million viewers over its length, which was down 20 percent from the previous year, and a household rating of 18.66%. Although an average of 32.3 million people watched during the first half-hour of the show,Joal Ryan (2008-02-25). Lowest Rated Oscars. Ever.. E! Entertainment Television. the audience diminished to an average of 25.4 million by its last half-hour. The ceremony also drew a record low 10.68 rating in the 18-49 target demographicsOscar Ratings: Not Good - From Inside the Box. Zap2It.com (2005-02-25).. It surpassed the ceremony of five years earlier as the lowest rated and least watched show since Nielsen ratings were recorded for the telecast in 1967 and audience size was monitored beginnning in 1974.Oscars Are a TV Ratings Dud. Associated Press.Oscar Ratings Lay a Golden Egg; But Why?. TV Guide (2005-02-25). Ratings for this ceremony were 14% lower than the previous record holder. Many were also quick to point out a big contrast between the ratings for the show and Super Bowl XLII, which attracted a record 97.5 million (three times as much as the ceremony) with 43.3% of households. According to the Chicago Tribune the Super Bowl and the Oscars (which since 2004, have usually occurred in the same month) have been usually the two big events that traditionally attract a large number of television viewers.Scott Collins "Oscar nominees may have turned off viewers", Chicago Tribune, Feb. 26, 2008.
Many insiders and critics blame the extremely low ratings and shrunken audience size to the fact that, like the awards telecast of two-years earlier, no box office hits were nominated. Many believe that the ratings for the awards heavily depend on what films receive the nominations. During the 70th Academy Awards, an audience of 57.25 million tuned into the ceremony in which the global blockbuster Titanic won a record-tying 11 awards from its 14 nominations.And the Oscar goest to...fewer TV ratings. The Wall Street Journal (2005-02-25).Lisa De Moraes, "Oscar ratings worst ever", The Washington Post (Cape Cod Times), Feb. 27, 2008.
Others blamed the preceding writers\' strike for the low ratings because it allotted for less time for the writers to prepare adequate material and more deeply thought humor (see below). It also may have hindered ABC (the broadcaster of the ceremony in the United States) in promoting the event for a longer time period due to doubts of the outcome of the strike.Brian Lowry, The 80th Annual Academy Awards -- From Your Couch, Variety, Feb. 24, 2008.
Despite poor American ratings, ironically, the show was by far the top rated show in Canada for the 2007-08 Canadian television season."BBM Canada TV ratings (week of February 18-24)".
Advertisers released new, specific commercials for the 80th Academy Awards as they did for the Super Bowl XLII. The primary American broadcaster, ABC reportedly earned $1.8 million per 30-second advertising spot.Milena Merrill, "2008 Oscars = fizzled sizzle", The Business of Film, NOLA.com, Feb. 26, 2008. Among the many advertisements that premiered were:
Aside from the commercials themselves, a number of product placements were also evident during the show itself. Among them Jon Stewart wielding an iPhone and making a gag about its widescreen capabilities while watching Lawrence of Arabia. After a commercial break, Stewart and August Rush star Jamia Simone Nash could be seen playing a Wii Sports tennis match against a giant screen.Siegel, Scott Jon (2008-02-25). Wii Tennis makes surprise appearance at the Oscars. Joystiq. Retrieved on 2008-02-25.
Throughout the ceremony, there were various tributes to the 80th Anniversary of the Academy Awards ceremony. One segment recapping the previous winners of the Best Picture award. Another montage highlighted the history of the ceremony. Preceding each acting award and the best director award presentation, a montage saluting previous winners of each award was shown. Several pre-recorded segments featured past winners discussing their feelings on winning, including Barbra Streisand, Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones, Sidney Poitier, Steven Spielberg, and Elton John.
The annual "In Memoriam" tribute was presented by Oscar-winning actress Hilary Swank. The memorial list included those who died between February 1, 2007, and January 31, 2008.
The tribute included Roscoe Lee Brown, Barry Nelson, Kitty Carlisle Hart, Betty Hutton, Calvin Lockhart, Jane Wyman, screenwriter Melville Shavelson, director Curtis Harrington, Jack Valenti, choreographer Michael Kidd, director Michelangelo Antonioni, director Delbert Mann, make-up artist Monty Westmore, soundman Peter T. Hanford, stuntman Bud Ekins, screenwriter Bernard Gordon, Dabbs Greer, Jean-Claude Brialy, art director Harold Michelson, Laraine Day, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Lois Maxwell, cinematographer Laszlo Kovacs, director Robert Clark, art director George Jenkins, Johnny Grant, studio executive Frank E. Rosenfelt, producer Martin Manulis, costume designer Donfeld, director Sembene Ousmane, agent Freddy Fields, agent Robert Lantz, executive Ray Kurtzman, Miyoshi Umeki, Suzanne Pleshette, Deborah Kerr, visual effects artist Peter Ellenshaw, film editor Peter Zinner, cinematographer Freddie Francis, director Ingmar Bergman, composer and songwriter Ray Evans, make-up artist William Tuttle, and actor Heath Ledger.
Like many entertainment award telecasts, the Academy Awards ceremony has suffered controversies throughout its history. However the broadcast had never before faced turmoil to the point of endangerment, as threatened by the 2007–08 Writers Guild of America strike.
The strike created uncertainty regarding the 2008 Awards. Although the strike was lifted before the date of the Awards, this occurred less than two weeks before and therefore long-term planning was difficult.
On December 18 2007, the striking Writers Guild of America 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. The material could have still been used though, as the denial only affected the conditions under which the clips are shown.WGA announcement Retrieved on December 29 2007. This was not the first time the ceremony took place during a labor dispute. The 60th Academy Awards occurred 37 days after that years\' writers strike began. At the time material was already completed in anticipation for the strike, and actors were in full attendance of the ceremony.http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3ic57162ccf8c18bbfafe8430eb69eecbf
In anticipation that the strike would continue through Oscar Night, the Academy developed a Plan B show that would not have included actors accepting their awards. It would have included the musical numbers, but would have relied heavily on historic film clips, emphasizing the 80th anniversary of the awards.Cidoni, Michael. "Oscar broadcast to air tonight at 5 p.m.", Sound Life, Associated Press, 2008-02-24. Retrieved on 2008-02-24. Nevertheless, the strike was lifted on February 12, as a result of a deal reached by the WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers introduced three days earlier. Therefore, the fear of picketing writers and boycotting actors (as a result of solidarity by the Screen Actors Guild) was eliminated, and the ceremony proceeded as normal.Elber, Lynn (2008-02-13). Writers Vote to End 3-Month Walkout.
Many analysts still suspect that the strike affected the amount of time for writing preparation and promotion for the ceremony itself.
One Oscar-related casualty from the strike aside from the ceremony were the cancellation of several entertainment parties in support of the strike including one held by Vanity Fair and another by Entertainment Weekly.Judge, Ben. "A to Z of the Oscars", Scotland On Sunday, Scotsman, 2008-02-24. Retrieved on 2008-02-24.
Brad Renfro was not among those mourned in the In Memoriam tribute, although he had died in January 2008. Academy spokesperson Leslie Unger responded to criticism by stating, "Unfortunately we cannot include everyone. Our goal is to honor individuals who worked in the many professions and trades of the motion picture industry, not just actors."Brad Renfro Excluded From Oscar Tribute (2008-02-24). Also among those omitted was costume designer Marit Allen, who was among the year\'s nominees for her work on La Vie en Rose. Ulrich Mühe, the star of the German film The Lives of Others (which won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 2006) was not mentioned, and also excluded were the French mime artist Marcel Marceau and Edward Yang, the Cannes-fêted Taiwanese director acclaimed for humane films including Yi Yi and A Brighter Summer Day.Edward Yang (2008-02-29). Also left out was Maila Nurmi (aka "Vampira"), who starred in such films as The Beat Generation, I Woke Up Early The Day I Died and the infamous cult classic Plan 9 from Outer Space.
Also, many TV viewers observed that during the montages honoring the 80-year history of the awards, highlights from four-time host Whoopi Goldberg and two-time host Steve Martin were notably absent from the montage (though Goldberg was acknowledged in another segment recognizing previous Best Supporting Actress winners).Whoopi: Oscar Diss Hurts, Feb. 25, 2008. On the talk show The View the following morning, Goldberg\'s co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck pointed out the omission, to which Goldberg responded, "Undoubtedly, I pissed somebody off once again. You know what, I don\'t--I don\'t know".http://www.eonline.com/news/article/?uuid=57103404-e940-4279-b2ac-48d4a2a659ba Co-hosts Hasselbeck, Sherri Shepherd, Joy Behar and Barbara Walters then embraced Goldberg and praised her for her accomplishments. Producer Gil Cates issued an apology to Goldberg three days after the ceremony.Gina Serpe, "Whoopi Makes Peace with Oscar Oops", E! News, Feb. 27, 2008.
Some of the broadcasters outside the United States (telecasted on ABC) showing the event live:80th Annual Academy Awards - Intl. Broadcasters. Oscar.com.
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