The Best Oscar Openings of All Time

The best Oscar opening numbers all in one place. With the 2013 Oscars on everybody's mind (Jennifer Lawrence vs. Jessica Chastain! Lincoln vs Argo! Daniel Day Lewis vs. no one!), it's time to look back on some of the best Academy Awards opening sequences as we ponder what 2013 Oscar host Seth MacFarlane (a 2013 Oscar nominee for Best Original Song from Ted) has up his sleeve for this year's Oscar opening skit.

This compilation of the best Oscar openings contains all the song, dance, and pageantry you'd expect from the Academy Awards. From stalwart (and frequent) Oscar host Billy Crystal, veteran award show host Hugh Jackman (whose Craigslist dancers may have put on the best Oscar dance montage in the history of the Academy Awards), and even some of the newer (riskier) Academy Awards hosts like James Franco and Anne Hathaway, this list of the top Academy Award opening skits has a little something for everyone. Each of these Academy Awards hosts had their own point of view of Hollywood to get across and the results are the best and worst Oscar opening numbers.

What Oscar host had the best opening monologue? Which Academy Awards host had the best Academy Awards opening sequence? Who was responsible for the worst Oscars opening? This video list should give you an idea of which Oscar hosts stepped up and were part of the best Academy Awards opening skits, and which of them failed to step up to the bar set by Academy Awards hosts past. If there's an Academy Awards opening number you know of that's not on this list of the best Oscar openings ever, make sure to add it so others can vote on whether or not it's truly the greatest Academy Awards opening sequence ever.