The Academy Awards took another step toward foregone conclusions Tuesday, announcing the list of nominees in yet another year where there aren’t likely to be any surprise winners in the major categories.

The most any film fan can hope for is a Best Picture victory for the “The Hurt Locker,” the only respectable film standing in the way of the dread “Avatar.” Both films lead the nominations with nine nods each.

The big news — or attempted big news, at least — of the year is the expanded Best Picture field, but rather than do anything radical with its extra five slots, the Academy rounded out the list with the usual suspects and diluted the meaning of an Oscar nomination even further. I appreciate the nods for “Up” and “A Serious Man,” my two favorite films of the year, but when they’re rubbing shoulders with “The Blind Side” on that list, I’m not sure it means all that much.

Acting awards

It's nice to see Jeff Bridges get a nomination, and most likely the win, for Actor in a leading role even if "Crazy Heart" wasn't any great revelation. George Clooney ("Up in the Air") and Jeremy Renner ("The Hurt Locker") are well deserving too, but it's a shame theater veteran Michael Stuhlbarg wasn't recognized for his brilliance in "A Serious Man."

The acting talent in the lead actress category is supreme — Helen Mirren, Meryl Streep ... Sandra Bullock? The awards season's love affair with the mawkish "The Blind Side" is a bit of a puzzler, but it's no great mystery that Bullock will be taking home the gold. Presumably, very few Academy members saw Tilda Swinton's magnetic, barn-burning turn in "Julia."

Even the supporting nominations will likely yield not a single surprise, despite the track record of there being at least one upset in the supporting categories. Mo'Nique ("Precious") and Christoph Waltz ("Inglourious Basterds") are far out in front of the pack.

Writing Awards

Even though "Avatar" is running roughshod over everything in its path, at least the Academy had enough good sense to disregard its recycled plotline for any achievement in writing.

Lots of worthy films are included in these two categories, with Quentin Tarantino's best screenplay yet, one of Pixar's most impressive achievements and the

Coens' delightfully dark script all getting recognized for original screenplay.

Adapted screenplay nominations include the best-written satire in a long time — the uproarious "In the Loop." It'll win if there's any justice, but even money is on "Up in the Air," a nicely crafted, but ultimately artificial screenplay.

Best Director/Picture

It’s a one man, one woman race in the director category, and wouldn't you know it, they used to be married. That might have lent some sense of fun competition to the category if James Cameron's ("Avatar") achievement even came close to approaching the level of ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow's ("The Hurt Locker").

As it stands, these are the two to beat, as are their respective films in the Best Picture category. The Academy can bray and bleat about the 10 Best Picture nominations this year all it wants (and it sure is — a press release from them promises, “You’ve never seen Oscar like this!”) Yeah right. The nominees that don’t have corresponding Best Director nominations are orphans adrift in the Oscar sea without a prayer.

Small victories

While it’s pretty clear this is going to be a year to forget at the Oscars, a few small victories ensure it’s not a total loss. Terry Gilliam’s highly imaginative “The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus” scored noms for its art direction and costume design, the haunting, Ingmar Bergman-like “The White Ribbon” was nominated for Best Foreign Film and for its cinematography and one of the best biopics of the decade, “Il Divo,” was recognized for its makeup. Hey, you take what you can get.

The 82nd Academy Awards are March 7, and will be broadcast on ABC.