History-making Oscars will try and reinvent the show

The pandemic-delayed Academy Awards ceremony takes place at a Los Angeles rail station on Sunday on what could be a historic night packed with surprises, not just around the winners but the event itself.

This report produced by Zachary Goelman.

The biggest cliffhanger at Sunday's Oscars may not be who wins the top prizes but how the movie industry's biggest night reinvents itself after a tumultuous year.

Forced to rethink the ceremony because of the pandemic, and with a slate of diverse but mostly smaller films, organizers are promising a show unlike anything seen in the 93-year history of the Academy Awards.

Staged for the first time in the Art Deco Union Station in downtown Los Angeles, Oscar producers have been vague on details of the limited in-person ceremony, which will be aired on ABC television Sunday night.

But they say the tone will be optimistic and the show will act as a love letter to the battered movie industry after a year of theater closures and delays in releasing dozens of potential blockbusters.

Netflix 1930s Hollywood drama "Mank" leads nominations with 10 nods, including the top prize of Best Picture.

Also in the running for that trophy, the 1960s courtroom saga "The Trial of the Chicago 7," also from Netflix.

The other nominees are recession drama "Nomadland," immigrant family story "Minari," civil rights biopic "Judas and the Black Messiah," and "Sound of Metal," about a deaf drummer.

The winners are chosen by the 9,000 members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.