This is a list of finalists for the 2008 Archibald Prize for portraiture. As the images are copyrighted, an external link to an image has been listed where available (listed is Artist – Title).

• Martin Ball – Neil Finn (Winner of the Packing Room Prize 2008) Image
• Phillip Barnes – Black: White: Red all over (portrait of Red Symons)
• Del Kathryn Barton – You are what is most beautiful about me, a self portrait with Kell and Arella (Winner of the Archibald Prize 2008) Image
• Anthony Bennett – Portrait of Jon Farriss in a Kylie T-shirt
• Danelle Bergstrom – Two movements – Peter Sculthorpe
• Roger Boreham – Dad, what a smile (portrait of his father)
• Eolo Bottaro – The Archibald
• Joanna Braithwaite – Chook, chook, chook (self-portrait)
• David Bromley – Louise Olsen
• Jun Chen – Ian Smith
• Zhong Chen – Nicholas Harding
• Zhansui Kordelya Chi – Julius (portrait of Julius Reade)
• Peteris Ciemitis – Grabowsky (portrait of Paul Grabowsky)
• James Cochran – Akira (portrait of Akira Isogawa)
• Yvette Coppersmith – In the garland (portrait of Paul Capsis)
• Richard Dunlop – Tim Olsen: the man in black
• Evans Neil – Blue days, black nights (self-portrait)
• Vincent Fantauzzo – Heath (portrait of Heath Ledger) (Winner of the People's Choice Award 2008) Image
• Hong Fu – Dr Joseph Brown Image
• Robert Hannaford – Alison Mitchell (portrait of artist’s wife)
• Zai Kuang – The sisters – Celia and Julia
• Sam Leach – Self in uniform (self-portrait)
• Barry McCann – Simpatico (portrait of Maggie Beer and Simon Bryant)
• Neil McIrvine – David Disher
• Alexander McKenzie – Sarah Blasko
• Lewis Miller – Tom Lowenstein
• Anna Minardo – The question (portrait of Bryan Dawe)
• Paul Newton – Portrait of Donald McDonald AC
• John Phillips – Wendy after two cups of coffee (portrait of Wendy Whiteley) Image
• Rodney Pople – Art is what you can get away with (self portrait)
• James Powditch – Aden Young in 'Once upon a time in the inner west'
• Ben Quilty – Self-portrait after Madrid
• Leslie Rice – Quartered, drawn and hung: Adam Cullen on public display
• Ryan Paul – Peter Booth, study with Cuban
• Jenny Sages – Anita and Luca (portrait of Anita and Luca Belgiorno-Nettis)
• Song Ling – Angelina Pwerle
• Nick Stathopoulos – At the movies with David Stratton (aka The big sleep)
• Xu Wang – Nick Waterlow
• Jan Williamson – Sue McPherson – artist
• Yi Wang – Long hair (self-portrait)

• Previous year: List of Archibald Prize 2007 finalists
• Next year: List of Archibald Prize 2009 finalists
• List of Archibald Prize winners

• Archibald Prize 2008 finalists, official website, Art Gallery of NSW