Oscars eye history after chaotic run up to awards

The contenders for that night-capping trophy have set the stage for what could be a night of historic firsts. They run the gamut of an evolving movie industry, with "Roma" -- a black-and-white film from Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron, for which no box-office data has been made available -- vying to become the first Netflix movie to land those honors, as well as the first foreign-language film in an increasingly global business.

On the flip side, "Black Panther" became the first superhero movie to garner a best-picture nomination, representing the sort of blockbusters upon which the studios have come to rely. The Marvel production is the third-highest-grossing US release of all time, at $700 million, and nearly doubled that total worldwide.

A number of individual nominees could also mark breakthroughs for women and people of color, only a few years after lack of diversity among the acting categories birthed the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag.

More broadly, the guilds representing actors, writers, directors and producers have all selected different films in the run-up to the Oscars, an unprecedented absence of consensus that has only heightened suspense regarding what might win.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has endured a series of controversies, beginning with the proposal to introduce a "popular film" category. That idea was quickly scuttled, as was a subsequent plan to move four awards into the commercial breaks to help streamline the ceremony, which prompted a rebellion from Academy members.

In between, Kevin Hart was chosen to host the awards, before the resurfacing of homophobic social-media posts prompted the comic to withdraw. After a period of confusion, it was finally confirmed the awards would be mounted without a host, the first time that's happened in 30 years.

Much of the tumult surrounding the 91st annual Oscars can be traced back to last year's awards -- and more specifically, a precipitous ratings decline, falling to an all-time low. Shortening the ceremony to three hours, or close to it, has been among the solutions that host network ABC has advocated as a means of stopping the bleeding from a Nielsen standpoint.

ABC and the Academy remained secretive about most of the elements in advance of this year's show, which only added -- fairly or not -- to a sense of chaos behind the scenes.

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