The alarm clock buzzed, Sonny & Cher sang I Got You, Babe and the 82nd annual Academy Awards nominations were announced on Groundhog Day. Oscar poked his shiny head out of a hole and saw his shadow, predicting five more weeks of debating 2009's best movies before the golden statuettes are presented on Mar. 7.

Unlike Bill Murray's day-loops in Groundhog Day, Tuesday morning's televised unveiling featured a new twist, at least one that hasn't happened in 66 years. The academy selected 10 finalists for the best picture prize, double the number that have been chosen yearly since 1943.

The academy's top-10 list to choose from: Avatar, The Hurt Locker, Up in the Air, Inglourious Basterds, Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire, The Blind Side, District 9, An Education, A Serious Man and Up.

Avatar and The Hurt Locker tied for overall nominations with nine each. Inglorious Basterds earned eight nods while Up in the Air and Precious tied with six each.

The expansion is considered the academy's grab for television ratings after a decade of declining viewership. Including mainstream box office smashes like Avatar is expected to bring more eyes to the ceremony, which equals more advertising revenue that keeps the academy running. It isn't coincidence that the show's highest TV ratings ever occurred in 1998 when Cameron's blockbuster Titanic was the centerpiece.

Tuesday's nominations appeared to take advantage of the opportunity to showcase more mainstream hits than usual, while including the more artistic and therefore lower-grossing works the academy loves, like The Hurt Locker, An Education, A Serious Man and Precious. In another year, those films might hog the list.

But the academy is going the populist route with a parade of mainstream hits, led by Cameron's sci-fi spectacle.

Avatar is the highest grossing film ever with over $2 billion in tickets sold worldwide while The Blind Side and Up cracked the $200 million mark in the U.S. alone. Inglourious Basterds made over $120 million during its U.S. release. Neill Blomkamp's sci-fi allegory District 9 finished close behind with $115 million.

The academy still wouldn't compromise its standards enough to include The Hangover in any category, after its $277 million box office take and a Golden Globe win for best comedy.

Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker) became only the fourth woman ever nominated for the best director Oscar, setting up another first. James Cameron (Avatar)
also made the directors short list, ensuring the first competition
between ex-spouses. Bigelow and Cameron were married from 1989 to 1991
and reportedly remain friendly. A heated Oscar race can change that.

Lee Daniels (Precious) joins Bigelow and Cameron with his own cultural achievement. Daniels became only the second African-American director ever nominated for an Oscar, along with John Singleton (Boyz 'n the Hood).

Bigelow
won the Directors Guild of America honor last weekend, and must be
considered the Oscar favorite. Only six times have the two groups
disagreed on the year's top director over 62 years that the DGA prize
has been presented. If this year's voting follows suit, Bigelow would
be the first woman ever to win the best director Oscar, after previous
nominees Lina Wertmuller (Seven Beauties), Jane Campion (The Piano) and Sofia Coppola (Lost in Translation) were denied.

PIxar's Up is the first animated feature to compete in the best picture race since 1991 when Beauty and the Beast made it in a 5-movie field.

In another play that could mean more TV viewers, the academy showed less affection than usual for British productions that American audiences typically avoid. Only An Education star Carey Mulligan, A Single Man's Colin Firth and previous winner Helen Mirren (The Last Station) made the acting lists. Screenwriter Nick Hornby (An Education) and the gang who wrote In the Loop round out the unusually slim British contingent.

The best actress category is essentially a two-person race. Meryl Streep (Julie & Julia) and Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side)
have swapped the spotlight throughout awards season -- and famously
shared it at the Golden Globes when a tie vote brought both to the
stage for a surprising lip-lock. Talk about a classic Oscars matchup:
Streep is the all-time acting nominations champ with 16 while Bullock
enjoys her first trip to the glitzy rodeo.

Now the question is whether voters believe 27 years since Sophie's Choice
is long enough to make Streep wait for her third Academy Award, or if
Bullock should wait a while longer to join the esteemed club.
First-time nominees like Bullock have been successful recently at the
Oscars -- winners Jennifer Hudson (Dreamgirls), Reese Witherspoon (Walk the Line), Rachel Weisz (The Constant Gardener) and Marion Cotillard (La Vie en Rose) among them -- so Bullock may pull it off.

In the best actor race, Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart) earned
his fifth nomination, becoming an early favorite to win after grabbing
the Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild prizes in recent weeks. Bridges plays Bad Blake, an alcoholic country music singer on the skids. Crazy Heart opens locally on Friday.

Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds) and Mo'Nique (Precious)
led the supporting actor and actress nominees and are considered
prohibitive favorites after being practically unbeatable during awards
season.

Tuesday's announcements also had their share of surprises. Maggie Gyllenhaal made the supporting actress list for playing Bad Blake's semi-salvation in Crazy Heart, and Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker) cracked into the best actor lineup, playing a U.S. Marine in Iraq enjoying his dangerous work too much.

Few people saw Into the Loop figuring into the adapted screenplay race. The political-military satire starring James Gandolfini as a profanely shrewd military officer was barely released to theaters. The likely victim of that surprise nomination was the anti-romcom (500) Days of Summer.

And more than a few heads are shaking about The Secret of the Kells making the list of best animated feature contenders. I had no idea it exists until the announcement. Produced in Ireland, it tells the story of a child monk on a quest for the sacred ink that will write the fabled Book of Kells. The Internet Movie Database notes a March, 2010 release in the U.S. but it isn't likely to be a wide release like the other nominees, Up, Coraline, Fantastic Mr. Fox and The Princess and the Frog.