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It's a year too late for The Dark Knight, but maybe those Hangover guys will have something extra special to celebrate.

This year's Best Picture field will be expanded to 10 contenders, the Academy Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today.

The move could mean typically overlooked genres like sci-fi, comedy and animation could get a crack at the big prize—and could spell good news for this year's biggest hits, Star Trek, The Hangover and Up.

While the Best Picture category, like the rest of the Oscar fields, has traditionally been limited to five nominees, it hasn't always been so.

During the early years of the Oscars, there were 10 nominees, up until Casablanca beat back nine rivals at the 16th Academy Awards at the 1943 ceremony.

Today's announcement comes as the Academy continues to mark the 70th anniversary of "Hollywood's Greatest Year"—1939 saw the release of such classic films as Best Picture winner Gone With the Wind, along with The Wizard of Oz, Stagecoach, Wuthering Heights, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Goodbye, Mr. Chips.

Nominations for the 82nd Academy Awards will be announced Feb. 2, 2010, with the ceremony set March 7.

AP Photo/Jennifer Graylock

This golden guy is going to be a little tardy.

The 82nd Annual Academy Awards will air live on ABC from Los Angeles' Kodak Theater on March 7, 2010 to avoid a ratings showdown with the Winter Olympics,  the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today. Nominations will be revealed Feb. 2.

Team Oscar unveiled key dates leading up to next year's ceremony, taking into account the 2010 Winter Olympics, which runs Feb. 12-28 in Vancouver.

Last year's Academy Awards were held on Feb. 22 and hosted by Hugh Jackman, who won mostly rave reviews for his song-and-dance shtick.

This is the first time the Oscars will be held in March since 2004, when the Academy decided to move the kudos to February ostensibly to fend off competitors like the Golden Globes, SAG and Critics' Choice awards that have taken some of the gloss off Tinseltown's oldest trophy-giving show.

AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade

The stars of Slumdog Millionaire have been thanked a, well, million by their countryfolk, as hundreds of fans—and dozens of armed, peacekeeping police—turned out at Mumbai's international airport early this morning to welcome the film's child stars and two-time Oscar-winning composer A.R. Rahman back to India.

Taking a cue from the film that earned eight Oscars, the excitable crowd chanted "Jai Ho!" and greeted Rahman, who touched down around 2:30 a.m., with welcoming bouquets as he made his way through the airport.

"I dedicate the Oscars to the people of the country and young and budding music artists," he said, going on to call his hero's welcome an "overwhelming reception," and saying that his awards show wins "shows anything is possible."

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Courtesy: Paul Hiffmeyer/Disneyland

And they thought their good fortune peaked when they met Mickey.

Two of Slumdog Millionaire's child actors are, quite literally, slumming it no more, with the Indian government rewarding the poverty-stricken toasts of Hollywood with new homes for their families outside of the Mumbai slums.

Amarjeet Singh Manhas, the chairman of the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority, said that Rubina Ali and Azharuddin Ismail, who played the youngest versions of Dev Patel and Freida Pinto's characters in the Oscar juggernaut, "are special and have won laurels for the country and we want to felicitate them."

"Since the children have made the nation proud, they must be given free houses," Manhas said. "The chief minister of the state has approved this. Their families will receive notification in a couple of days."

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Why are Robert Pattinson and Zac Efron owed tips from Oscar organizers? Why is Chris Rock owed an apology from the Oscar press? And when the heck is Nielsen going to start folding in Web and mobile-phone use—and start saving your favorite endangered show?

The answers—and more questions—in this week's TV ratings pop quiz:

1. Did Pattinson and Efron Really Save the Oscars? Fans of Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway and Kate Winslet, among others, say, "Are you outta your mind?" The numbers, however, suggest the two tween gods sure didn't hurt. The show's ratings among teens 12-17 and kids 2-11 zoomed, up 25 percent and 33 percent, respectively, from last year, ABC said, citing Nielsen stats.

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Talk about a self-fulfilling prophecy!

As excited as she was about her big Best Actress win at the Oscars last night, Kate Winslet surely saw it coming. In fact, she predicted only a few years ago that participating in a Holocaust film not unlike The Reader might bring her a little gold man!

In 2005, the much-lauded actress appeared on the comedy series Extras playing herself. When Ricky Gervais' character commends the actress for doing a Holocaust movie, she tells him it has nothing to do with spreading the message.

"I don't think we need another film about the Holocaust, do we?" her character version of herself says. "It's like how many have there been? We get it. It was grim. Move on. No, I'm doing it because I've noticed that if you do a film about the Holocaust, [you're] guaranteed an Oscar. I've been nominated four times—never won. The whole world is going, 'Why hasn't Winslet won one?' That's it. That's why I'm doing it. Schindler's bloody List. The Pianist. Oscars coming out of their ass!"

Something tells us the statuette wasn't the main reason Winslet signed on to play Nazi guard Hanna Schmitz in The Reader. But, perhaps her moment on Extras left a minor impression...