Oscar Openings

I have watched the Oscars for the last 8 years and find that the openings play a huge role in telling us how the show will be. A good opening makes up for a drab show as with a good opening the viewers and tweeters wont rip you apart before the first award of the night has been presented. Yes by the end every host gets ripped apart as it is tough to keep the attention of the room for 3 and a half hours.

In order from Worst to Best openings

8. 83^rd Academy Awards

Hosts: James Franco and Anne Hathaway

No comment. This one was just disgusting and everything felt forced.

7. 85^th Academy Awards

Host: Seth Macfarlane

He started off well by poking fun at the Academy for failing to nominate Ben Affleck in the Director’s category for Argo(Ben Affleck had swept the Director Awards at every single show on the Awards circuit) The time travel joke was when things began to go downhill. He aired a pre-recorded performance of a terribly sexist song aimed as a tribute to all the actresses who went topless on screen  called “we saw your boobs.” The audience were stony faced and were holding their heads in disbelief. Jennifer Lawrence seemed thrilled as the song stated that her boobs hadn’t been seen at all.

6. 88^th Academy Awards

Host: Chris Rock

This was Chris Rock’s second stint as Oscar host and many saw him as the Academy’s response to the Oscars so white controversy that took place a year earlier. That year too all the 20 acting nominations were white. He immediately started off by commenting about how he saw Black actors on the opening montage. Following that he labelled the Oscar’s as the “White people’s choice awards” and said if hosts were nominated he wouldn’t have been the host. His suggestion for having black nominations annually was, to combine the male and female acting categories as it isn't track and field where the men and women need to be separated and instead have a black actor's category. He then wasn’t really interacting with the audience and ended up having what many called ‘a speech.’ Also constant usage if “you know” after everything he said. At the end we wanted him to stop and progress onto the awards.

5. 84^th Academy Awards

Host: Billy Crystal

Billy Crystal returned for the 8^th time to host the Oscars for the 9^th time and he got good reviews as frankly, anything would be better than last year’s debacle. He has a small monologue where he spoke about how the Oscar results breed resentments for a lifetime and used the film names like War Horse (as a name to call him as it was his 9^th time as host)following which he performed and introduces each best picture nominee in a comical manner. His opening video parodied how he was reluctant to host the show and was persuaded to do so. It was a silent opening video akin to The Artist which was nominated for best film and was the frontrunner. His song poked fun at Martin Scorcese whose film Hugo marked a departure from the gangster films that are synonymous with his name and urged him to treat the sequel to Hugo in a gangster way “coz he’s Marty.” The 6 minutes continuously made references to how things have changed as he called the Dolby Theatre which a year earlier was the Kodak Theatre as the Chapter 11 Theatre( the venue of his hosting gigs in the 90s). He even said,  "9 is the new 5", as only 5 films were nominated fro Best Film in each of his 8 previous stints. Also his song always starts with “It’s a wonderful night for Oscar.. Oscar Oscar.. Who will win?” following which he jokingly asked the audience, ”you didn’t think I wasn’t gonna do that now did you?”

4. 82^nd Academy Awards

Hosts : Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin

They started off well with Alec listing out all of Steve’s achievements as introducing him and Steve just with a casual flick of his hand said, “This is Alec Baldwin.” The next was the traditional joke at serial nominee Meryl Streep as they explained how the voting takes places and how the votes are tabulated but no matter what they nominate Meryl Streep. They gave her recognition for most nominations as an actress, Steve Martin said he likes to think of it as Most Losses. They then poked fun at Helen Mirren mispronouncing Dame as Damn. Sandra Bullock who had received a lot of love all throughout the Awards season was next and the question asked “was who does not love her”, to which Alec Baldwin replied, ”we’ll find out tonight.” The usage of 3D glasses to spot Director of Avatar James Cameron, and the usage of bug spray to get rid of the floating woodsprites(seeds of the tree of souls), the mix up between Matt Damon and Ben Affleck and grumpy George Clooney and Alec Baldwin’s silent stares were some more memorable parts of the opening

3. 81^st Academy Awards

Host: Hugh Jackman

He poked fun at the recession. In addition to introducing the nominated films (as is the norm with a musical performance) he also spoke about comedies and billion dollar blockbusters like The Dark Knight) not getting nominations. His musical sets as well reflected the recession and his performance was magnificent as like Billy Crystal he was interacting with the nominees in between verses for each film. The audience gave him a standing ovation and it was this performance that made me watch the Oscars again as this was my 1^st impression of the Oscars (and it is said that the 1^st impression is the last impression)

2. 86^th Academy Awards

Hosted: Ellen Degeneres

She started off brilliantly with a serious face thanking everyone for their prayers as they were experiencing a lot of rain which had to make them install a roof over the Red Carpet. She made a joke about nominee June Squibb’s old age and spoke a little loudly like one would to a person who is hard of hearing (but as a talk show host she would be able to pull such stuff off as she interacts with Hollywood stars regularly and is a universally loved figure, which is evident as she managed to call the entire crowd as racists and got away with it as the room burst into laughter). Next up was Ellen commenting on why Meryl Streep cannot afford to be nominated again. Jennifer Lawrence had a fall while accepting Best Actress the year earlier, and Ellen started talking about it saying “its so embarrassing when people talk about something that happened like that.” Post that Ellen spoke about how no one needed to know what happened when Jennifer Lawrence was getting out of the car, then she turned and with a slight smile announced that she fell while getting out of the car.

1.  87^th Academy Awards

Host: Neil Patrick Harris

He just spoke 1 line welcoming us to the Oscar’s where they honour Hollywood’s best and whitest.. sorry brightest, following which he performed a memorable opening number paying tribute to the theme of the year “Moving Pictures.”(A song was expected as he has made a name for himself hosting the Tony’s) The song first spoke about how people are tweeting and how no one is bitter yet cause no one has lost, in a first the publicists were given a mention as they are he ones who make sure  film generates enough buzz in the right places to help it receive a nomination. There was a brilliant shadow performance of singing in the rain(helped evoke nostalgia). Like the name of the song suggests, many films like argo, fargo, Indiana Jones, Godfather, Sting, Ghost, Field of Dreams, Frozen, Wizard of Oz and Star Wars just to name a few. In a cameo Jack Black acknowledged how the only screens we watch are the ones in our jeans.

To cap it off when the host finally introduced the nominees for Best Picture, the choreography for the characters of various moves moving in out and of the light seamlessly and then all falling in line behind the host was just spectacular and after the song, I was amazed as Moving Pictures are truly wonderful and should be appreciated and that is possible as the song will stay stuck in your head.(Its been 2 years and it is still stuck in my head)

And for the 89^th Oscar’s. Where will Jimmy Kimmel feature in this list. I feel he can better Ellen’s gig.