Casual moviegoers finally have a reason to watch the Academy Awards ceremony.

When the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences decided to expand its Best Picture category from five nominees to 10, many hoped it would lead to a more diverse and audience-friendly awards show. They got their wish, and it only desecrated the Oscar image a little bit.

The expanded category gives blockbusters “Avatar,” “The Blind Side,” “District 9,””Inglourious Basterds” and “Up” a chance to compete against the smaller, award-friendlier films, “An Education,” “The Hurt Locker,” “Precious,” “A Serious Man” and “Up in the Air.”

Voters should be commended for such solid choices in the first year of this 10-nominee experiment. “Up” becomes only the second animated feature to ever compete for Best Picture, and surprise nominee “District 9” proves that Academy voters are finally beginning to understand the craft of science-fiction. Yeah, yeah, “Avatar” proves that too.

The only real misfit here is “The Blind Side,” a movie with almost no Oscar precursors to its credit. Most of its buzz has circled star Sandra Bullock, who is now the likely frontrunner in the Best Actress category.

As for the snubs, nothing terribly shocking went down Tuesday morning. The terrific “Star Trek” reboot is the most glaring omission in Best Picture, but considering two other sci-fi movies made it, the snub isn’t surprising at all.

The creative romance “(500) Days of Summer” missed the cut on Best Picture as well. Its most stinging rejection, however, came in the Best Original Screenplay category. This is exactly the kind of genre-defying entry that should win the category, so it’s especially confusing to have it out of contention completely.

The Academy also continues to botch nominees in the Original Song category. Why not nominate songs that are an essential component in the films in which they are derived? Because the hilarious “Stu’s Song” from “The Hangover” is something people will remember long after “Take It All” from the reviled “Nine” or “Loin de Paneme” from “Paris 36.”

Other minor quibbles: No technical nominations for “Where the Wild Things Are,” one of the most gorgeous films of the year. While “Fantastic Mr. Fox” scored a Best Animated Feature nomination, it more than deserved a spot in the Adapted Screenplay category. At least the wickedly smart political satire “In the Loop” scored a surprise nomination in that category.

And, thank God, “Avatar” was left out of the Original Screenplay race. Rewriting “Ferngully” shouldn’t earn anyone accolades.

As for my annual Press predictions, I managed to score 42 out of the 50 nominees. My mistakes: Securing only seven of the 10 Best Picture nominations, and only three out of five in each Screenplay category. I also missed the little-seen “The Secret of Kells” in Best Animated Feature. Nobody got that one right, so I don’t feel too bad.

While many expect “Avatar” to dominate the evening, “The Hurt Locker” seems to have all the momentum on the awards circuit. It would be a real treat to see this fantastic $12 million grosser unseat the highest-grossing (and perhaps most overrated) film of all time. Only “Inglourious Basterds” and “Up in the Air” have enough juice to be real spoilers.