How would you make the Academy Awards ceremony more entertaining?

I've always enjoyed them the most when they have featured great comedians as MC. Such as Billy Crystal, Ellen De was excellent, Whoppi Goldberg was also very good, these are just to mention a few. I also feel that the "stuffy formal" atmosphere adds a bit of boredom to the evening, the men should be allowed to dress in formal attire but something besides "tuxedo's" they are sooooo boring! And let their hair down a bit, enjoy the evening come on folks! Of course what's being nominated is also important, some years it's just a big yawn. Back in the 70's and 80's there were some exciting Academy Award ceremonies, where you could not wait for the event to start, where people put on Award Parties! Those were the days.

It just seems people are taking themselves "way" too seriously, the "fun" is gone amongst the movie professionals!

Limit the awards speeches for all but the top 5 categories. For awards such as sound editing, etc, allow only one person to come on stage to accept the award. Have those nominees make a list beforehand of the many people they want to thank and put it on a screen for all at the awards and at home to see so the person accepting the award can be limited to saying they want to think all who had a part in the process. This will cut the time wonderfully.

To make it more fun, allow the presenters to come up with their own method and monologue for announcing the nominees in the category they are presenting. After all, these are creative people and I'm sure they are capable of coming up with a way to present the nominess that is far better than viewers watching countless actors/actresses squint at teleprompters, reading badly. Pair them up for best entertaining impact ( i.e.it is well known that George Clooney and Brad Pitt like to razz each other and do pranks...THAT would make a great pair to present a category's nominees).

There is no way to make the ceremony more entertaining for outsiders like you and I. Let me explain.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences is a private club. You have to be approved by a committee to become a member and not all those who have speaking roles in movies are members. For example, Rodney Dangerfield was refused membership because it was felt that what he did in movies was no different than his stand-up routine, in other words, he wasn't acting.

Every year at this time the Academy gives out awards to it's membership in various categories. The nominees and the winners are determined by the Academy membership. It has nothing to do with your opinion or mine. In fact, aside from the potential of generating increased ticket sales, the Academy couldn't care less about what you and I think.

My point is that since they don't care about us how in the world could they expect us to be interested?

I do have one suggestion though. They should eliminate the "Foreign Language" category and make the awards open to films & film makers wherever in the world films are made. Hollywood is an empty shell these days, they haven't had an original idea in decades. The "Best Films" in the world are not made in the USA.

Lately i feel that there's been a dozen or so Hollywood awards for the past 2 months. There is just too much awards, which makes this academy award less important and significant.

To make this award more stand out, there should be some performances by top dancers and singers, and mixed with famous orchestras performed by music teams across the globe.

The audiences in the academy award should dress bright blue and red to form some sort of symbol when they raise themselves up to show the excitement and energy of the academy award night.

I don't watch awards shows. When one of those stupid things is coming on (and I get a call from someone saying 'come on over, we're watching the awards, it'll be fun!') I make a polite excuse and go see a movie. This evening I will be at the local theater/pub, watching the semi-new Robert Downey/'Sherlock Holmes' movie, with them bringing some great local beers and good munchies to my seat. $3 per movie. I might then see a second movie. Then I might need to take a cab home.

But at least I won't have been stuck watching the awards show. And as far as I'm concerned, that makes me the winner.

Have a 15 minute show where best actor and actress wins. mybe best supporting actress and actor. The rest get their awards in front of the people that voted for them , make it their private party.

No more competition to see what star can pay the most money for the least dress, and get so outlandish in style. That part is getting redidiculous.

We use to love Cinderellas dress when we were kids, because it was beautifu to us kids. Now each star wants to walk down that RED carpet with the most beautiful dress, ever and the styles are getting so bad , that they are a spectacle not beautiful!

Keep the politics out of the lamplight, after all which politican they back up, is their opinion and not backed up by knowledge or fact. Who do you think they will be for, when one of the partys is in control of their UNION!

I would like them to spend more time focusing on the movies that are up for awards. Show us clips that are 2-3 minutes long, not 10 second blips. Focus more on the actors and give them time to speak and to share thoughts on stage... and televise all of the awards, even the technical ones.

Let the artists up for awards for songs from movies perform them. I am so tired of the acrobats, the silly presenter banter... make the show about the people who are there, make the show about the awards. I enjoy the remembrance of those that have passed away as a fitting tribute to people that have shaped the industry, and that have touched our lives... but get rid of the skits, and the dumb jokes....

We watch to see stars and see stars being made.

to have a Oscar nominee expansion for Comedy, Drama, Action, Horror, the TV movies, and for the gay/lesbian genre, and it doesn't have to have good or bad reviews to be nominated for a Oscar, only the fans could vote to nominate the 5 movies they love, and Razzies would still the same thing to nominate the other movies that remain that has bad reviews. if the Oscars could agree for that, the Oscars will be exciting and entertaining again like the 1930s and like the 1980s, and agreed to have uncensored speechs with language and nudity, outlawing the FCC to censor live speeches, The Academy has the right to censor only for political reasons or made death threats and/or comments of a celebrity, why does the FCC not have syndicated shows a TV-MA rating? that was stupid, and one last thing, the Oscars would have stunts that would be so entertaining, only to have a Best Stuntman award for the Oscars.

Billy Crystal did a marvelous job; to make it, however, more entertaining the Academy Award should let Crystal wear anything he wants on stage as a contrast to the red carpet wardrobes.

Have a party for it!!! Put on the invites for everyone to come dressed as a past nominee or winner of the academy awards! Encourage them to go crazy! Like..... Bjork and her swan costume. have everyone bring snacks or candy. Also, have them come early to watch the red carpet so you and your friends can critique the outfits! Also, you can have a game beforehand guessing who will win the academy award for a certain category. Afterwords, the people who guess correctly wins a little prize. Have the person hosting without costume, so they can judge the costumes and give prizes out that are like little academy award trophys-- most creative, craziest, and overall winner, for instance. So that is a way to make academy awards super fun!!!

OK look, we know they want to thank all these people for getting them the award. Got it. Mail a thank-you note. Come up, say hi to your mom/wife/kids, poke fun at you high school class mates that made fun of you for being in Drama class(by name preferably), and thank the fans for spending their hard earned dollars to pay $7 for popcorn to make your movie a hit(instead of waiting for the DVD rental).

Keep it under a minute.

Put... oh say, Robin Williams as MC and let him go unscripted(I dare ya).

The guys who get best sound editing probably deserve it. Where the hell else are their works going to be recognized? Now, by trimming the speeches down, you have time to show some best action clips and funny one-liners from the movies nominated on the video screen to play off the MC and Viceversa. It'll loosen the thing up a bit and let out some of that stuffy feeling.

Lighten up. Sure, biggest award of your career and all. But, if you don't win, did you have ANY fun attending?

Entertain us, entertain yourselves. Take a lesson from Dancing With The Stars. If they can make ballroom dancing a hit TV show, they are doing something right.