It’s all well and good in Hollywood as far as awards season goes, and the 82nd Academy Awards — the crown jewel of the season — are set to take place on March 7. The nominations are in, with some surprises and some shoe-ins; not to mention some films no one has seen or heard of, and some movies that no one will or should.

This year, the Academy is trying something new in allowing for 10 slots of consideration for the coveted Best Picture award.

Although this allows for more noteworthy films to be nominated, it also results in more films “losing” the award provided a subpar film wins (cough, Avatar) and it also makes omissions or “snubs” that much more glaring. Case in point: no love for a powerhouse of directing and scope like Invictus while The Blind Side — a predictable feel-good film, though with admittedly good performances — gets a Best Picture slot? They’re both sports movies, they both have moments of triumph, and Sandra Bullock and company do a hell of a job, but one is clearly a superior picture. Even if the Academy is trying to avoid criticism for nominating “Oscar-bait” films: Eastwood and Freeman? Movie about apartheid? Okay, that holds up.

Likewise, Up was a great film, no doubt. But its nomination seems more like an apology for Wall-E’s snub last year. And despite its critical acclaim, has anyone seen An Education yet?

The director nominees are acceptable, except for James Cameron’s for Avatar. He already got the Golden Globe … much to the chagrin of anyone actually involved with movies, including watching them with more than glazed expressions. For those gunning for Cameron’s film sweeping this year, look up the online joke where someone replaces key words in a synopsis of Pocahontas with the corresponding terms in Avatar. It’s on failblog, ebaumsworld, cracked.com etc. If Avatar wins, I will personally blowtorch several dozen hectares of rainforest to the ground in protest.

It’s nice to see Woody Harrelson get a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his turn as a jaded Army captain stuck casualty-notifying dead soldiers’ next-of-kin in The Messenger. Like Robert Downey Jr.’s last year, Harrelson’s return to the world of movie relevance (Zombieland and 2012 feature him prominently) gets him a gentleman’s nomination. I say gentleman’s, because Christoph Waltz practically has the award in his bulging pocket already. Screen veteran Christopher Plummer snagged a nice courtesy nomination for The Last Station, biopic of Leo Tolstoy. Has anyone seen that one either? And Crazy Heart just came out, so it’s puzzling to see how well it’s winning with critics before audiences have had a chance to chime in.

MoNique’s frightening portrayal of an abusive mother in Precious has turned Best Supporting Actress into another round of courtesy nominations, which is probably for the best, because it would have been tough watching Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick catfight for scraps.

The screenplay nominations are all respectable, honoring the films that deserve it; except for In the Loop, which is another title that is probably quite unfamiliar to many. The animated feature seems like an easy win for Up, as Pixar is the heavyweight in that category, but it would be a shame to ignore the stop-motion triumphs of Coraline and especially Fantastic Mr. Fox — grossly underrepresented elsewhere. And Up already got the apology Best Picture nomination, though worse attempts at making up for past mistakes have occurred.

So the nominations are a good spread, and each of the most notable films at least one mention, which is better than some abysmal years past (like last year…nothing for The Dark Knight … and Doubt and Benjamin Button got nominations…and Sean Penn won…travesty).

Regardless of what the Golden Globes may have telegraphed, Up in the Air needs to be the little engine that could and sweep these awards, because that was the best movie of last year, hands down.