THANKS TO the Winter Olympics, the road to this year’s Oscars was a little longer and many campaigns took advantage of the extra time to get noticed. With the Olympic torch now extinguished, worldwide audiences will have a week to regroup while Hollywood prepares to roll out the red carpet for Sunday’s big night.

And what a big night it promises to be. The most talked about change this year is the expansion of the Best Picture category, from 5 to 10 for the first time in 60 years. With a wide variety of genres in contention for the top prize, including the new number one blockbuster of all time (“Avatar”) and a film without audience appeal (“A Serious Man”), there’s something for every movie lover to celebrate. The telecast’s producers, Adam Shankman and Bill Mechanic, have revealed little what they plan to do. But they’ve (unfortunately) nixed the performances of the Best Song nominees. And they have decided not to continue last year’s innovative and heartfelt concept of having five past winners present all the acting awards. Instead, they plan to have each category’s presenter with a specific past relationship to the category or nominees. This new approach seems a stab at something new, but frankly, the tradition of passing the torch works on many levels. Let’s hope not too much time is spent on establishing the past relationship.

As for the races, the biggest battle still seems the one between the exes, directors James Cameron vs. ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow and their respective films “Avatar” and “The Hurt Locker.” While the new voting system still confounds me and many prog- nosticators have a compelling theory how “Inglourious Basterds” can pull an upset a la

Shakespeare in Love” (besting “Saving Private Ryan”), the Academy will award Best Picture to “Avatar” and make history awarding Bigelow the first female to win the director trophy. The other toss-up is between Sandra Bullock and Meryl Streep. Will the Academy, with its largest branch comprised of actors, honor Sandra in a role that’s considered a departure for her or end Meryl’s “losing” streak since 1983 on her 16th nomination? I wish they could tie

Katharine Hepburn and Barbra Streisand did in 1968) but short of that, Bullock will be the belle of the ball. The unstoppable shoo-ins are Christoph Waltz (“Inglourious Basterds”) and Mo’Nique (“Precious”) in the Supporting Actor and Actress categories. The sentimental, careercrowning Best Actor frontrunner is Jeff Bridges for

Crazy Heart” but it truly should go to Colin Firth for “A Single Man.” A surprise upset? I hope so; but it’s doubtful.

Here’s a list of some of my other predictions: “Up” for Best Animated Film and Original Score, and the screenwriters for “Up in the Air”

Adapted Screenplay) and

Inglourious Basterds” (Original Screenplay). Best Foreign Film will go to Argentina’s “El Secreto de Sus Ojos.” Adding to the exes’ split, “Avatar” will clean up technical awards (Visual Effects, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing) and Art Direction; and “The Hurt Locker” will take home Editing and possibly Cinematography. “Crazy Heart” will grab another for the unperformed Best Song. “The Young Victoria” will take Costume Design, Make-up will go to “Star Trek” and Documentary Feature will honor “The Cove.”

The 82nd Annual Academy Awards airs live on Sunday, March 7 at 5:30 PM EST on ABC.