The nominees for the 82nd Academy Awards were announced this morning.  The big surprise of the morning was a Best Picture nomination for football drama The Blind Side.

The expanded field of 10 nominees for Best Picture is the most since 1943.

Avatar and The Hurt Locker are considered the front-runners for the Best Picture award.  While Avatar has become the highest-grossing film of all time, earning more than $2 billion, The Hurt Locker made only $12.7 million domestically – less money than any Best Picture winner since Gigi in 1958.  And in 1958, tickets cost 51 cents.

Another wrinkle to the race is the marital history between Avatar director James Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow.  They wed in 1989 and were divorced just 2 years later.  Bigelow is the favorite to win Best Director; she would be the first woman to do so.

The Best Picture Nominees:

• Avatar
• The Blind Side
• District 9
• An Education
• The Hurt Locker
• Inglourious Basterds
• Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
• A Serious Man
• Up
• Up in the Air

The Academy Awards will be broadcast on Sunday, March 7th.