80th Academy 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 (‡).[21]

• Robert F. Boyle — In recognition of one of cinema's great careers in art direction.[23]

Continuing a trend in recent years, the field of major nominees favored independent, low-budget films over blockbusters.[41][42] 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.[43]

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.[13] 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).[44]

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.[45] 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).[45]

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."[46] 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."[47] 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.[48]

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."[49] 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."[50]

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.[51] The show also earned lower Nielsen ratings compared to the previous ceremony with 18.7% of households watching over a 29 share.[52] In addition, it garnered a lower 18–49 demo rating with a 10.7 rating over a 26 share among viewers in that demographic.[53] 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.[54][55] 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.[56] 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).[57][58]