Los Angeles ? Academy Awards organizers are going all out to inject more suspense into Hollywood’s biggest party today.

If only the competition itself would cooperate.

While there are close races in key categories, this year’s show again suffers from a predictability factor for the top prize. Best picture is expected to go to “Slumdog Millionaire,” the movie that has won the same honor at every other awards ceremony that matters.

Predictability can translate into a ho-hum attitude among TV viewers, who are less likely to sit through a marathon Oscar broadcast just to hear a winner announced at the end of the evening that everyone expected beforehand.

The Oscars had their lowest TV ratings ever last year, when the best-picture prize was handed to “No Country for Old Men,” which dominated earlier awards shows just as “Slumdog Millionaire” has.

A best-picture nomination for “The Dark Knight” might have helped, since more viewers tend to tune in when such behemoth films are in the running. Though “Dark Knight” supporting-actor nominee Heath Ledger looks like a lock to become only the second performer ever to win an Oscar posthumously, the Batman blockbuster was left out of other top categories.

“Slumdog Millionaire,” an infectious story of a Mumbai street orphan who finds fame, love and wealth in the face of terrible hardship, faces off for best picture against the romantic fantasy “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” the Richard Nixon tale “Frost/Nixon,” the Harvey Milk drama “Milk” and the Holocaust-themed saga “The Reader.”

Oscar planners are trying to spice up the show with an air of mystery. Filmmakers Bill Condon and Laurence Mark are overseeing the ceremony, their first time working on the Oscars, which they hope to shake up with new approaches to what has become a staid procession of awards, many of which the average viewer doesn’t care about.

They won’t reveal just what they have in mind, other than to say they want to try different methods of presenting the trophies and otherwise reinvigorate the festivities.

“That’s what we’re hoping to do across the board, just freshen them up and surprise people again with the way these awards are given,” Condon said.

Organizers dropped their usual onslaught of announcements about A-list celebrities appearing as awards presenters. Their identities are being kept secret, and their presence — at least in some cases — is being kept off the red carpet.

Audiences can count on a healthy dose of stars among the acting nominees, who include past Oscar winners Meryl Streep, Sean Penn, Angelina Jolie and Marisa Tomei.