One year after Oliver! (1968) had achieved the only Best Picture win for a movie rated 'G' by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), at this Academy Awards presentation Midnight Cowboy (1969) became the only film rated 'X' by the MPAA to win the Best Picture Oscar, although the film's rating was later downgraded to 'R" after the organization redefined its rating criteria. The only other such X-rated film to be nominated for Best Picture would be A Clockwork Orange (1971) two Oscarcasts later, that movie also later downgraded to an 'R' but in that case due to editing cuts made to the film. The MPAA's 'X' rating was abandoned in 1990 in favor of the 'NC-17' rating, which has been applied to numerous Oscar-nominated films since.
Two of the evening's acting nominees--Elliott Gould for Best Supporting Actor for Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969) and Geneviève Bujold for Best Actress for Anne of the Thousand Days (1969) (Gould also presenting the Best Sound award)--would a decade later co-star as romantic leads in the Disney film The Last Flight of Noah's Ark (1980), which included the song "Half of Me" with lyrics by Hal David, this evening's winning lyricist for the Best Song Award for "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969). Neither Gould nor Bujold won in their nominated categories.