This is a list of finalists for the 2005 Archibald Prize for portraiture (listed is Artist – Title).

• Rick Amor – Shane Maloney (Image)^[1]
• Bruce Armstrong – Self portrait (Image)^[2]
• Martin Ball – John Pule
• John Beard – Hilarie Mais
• Jason Benjamin – Staring down the past – (Bill Hunter) (Image)^[3] (Winner of the Packing Room Prize)
• Annette Bezor – Still posing after all this time (a self portrait)
• Jon Campbell – Double Darren
• Adam Chang – Gene & the doorway
• Peter Churcher – Portrait of Jeffrey Smart
• Esther Erlich – Lindy Wills
• James Guppy – Chagrin
• Robert Hannaford – Bob Brown
• Nicholas Harding – Bob's daily swim – (Robert Dickerson) (Image)^[4] (Winner of the People's Choice Award)
• Bill Hay – Allan Mitelman
• Terrence Hunter Chapter Six – Self portrait
• Paul Jackson – Gretel Killeen
• Raymond Kenyon – The architect at home – (Glenn Murcutt)
• Jasper Knight – Richard Gill
• Kerrie Lester – Rebel
• Mathew Lynn – Wendy drawing – (Wendy Sharpe)
• Lewis Miller – My dentist – Dr Jonathan Hartley
• Ian North – Daniel Thomas at home, Northern Tasmania
• John Olsen – Self portrait Janus faced (Winner of the Archibald Prize)
• Rodney Pople – Kerrie Lester – after Goya
• Ben Quilty – Beryl – (Beryl Whiteley, mother of Brett Whiteley)
• Abdul Karim – Rahimi John McDonald
• David Ralph – Imagination – Adam and Harvie – (Adam Elliot was the creator of Harvie Krumpet)
• Paul Ryan – Archibald, Archibald, wherefore art thou Archibald?
• Jenny Sages – Gloria Tamere Petyarre
• Garry Shead – All the World's a Stage – Simon Phillips
• Jiawei Shen – John So, The Lord Mayor of Melbourne
• Avril Thomas – The Minister from down under – (Hon. Alexander Downer M.P.)
• Deborah Trusson – Naked
• John R. Walker – Self portrait
• Xu Wang – Jiawei Shen
• Michael Zavros – Portrait of Alex Dimitriades