State of the Oscar Race

The Toronto Film Festival may be over, but awards season is just getting started. A bunch of potential Oscar players made a splash to the delight of critics and bloggers everywhere.

There were some notable surprises, but nothing that truly bombed; save for a few films, the big names more or less performed how they were expected to.

And then there were some films (the Rooney Mara/Cate Blanchett drama "Carol" for one) that decided to skip the festival altogether. That hardly matters; With Harvey Weinstein behind you, your film is assured some kind of nomination.

Here are a few of the biggest takeaways post-TIFF; Where do the current players stand?

Oscar Frontrunners Make Strides at Telluride and Venice

With the Venice and Telluride Film Festivals opening this past week, the Oscar contenders wasted no time in making their stakes at the front of the evolving race.

Below are a list of the films that received a boost from critics and bloggers after their respective premieres.

Final Into the Woods Trailer

This trailer is giving me everything I had hoped for from the adaptation... Now to wait and see if this translates as well into the film, which is still over a month away.

The music sounds spectacular, and we finally get to see some more of the actors in action, though Meryl is so obviously front and center (and she looks great).

Take a look below.

Go Into the Woods with a Sneak Peek Featurette

As discussed to almost ad-nausium, the marketing for Disney's "Into the Woods" has been curiously quiet; from that quiet, yet exhilarating teaser dropped back in summer, to the confusing reports of the film's development and Oscar strategy, we don't know a whole lot about it.

In fact, despite being my most anticipated release of the year, I was starting to worry about the film's quality; can it stick the landing? Disney's track record as of late has not been all that promising...

But this morning, a 4 minute featurette was released with new footage (yes! we have some singing finally) and cast interviews that have restored my faith in this adaptation. Though I'm still hesitant, I fully believe there will be more bad, than good to come out of this.

Take a look below.

First Official Poster For Into The Woods; Meryl Front and Center

Disney's "Into the Woods" is largely a player in the Oscar race simply because of actress Meryl Streep, who plays the largely coveted role of The Witch in Rob Marshall's adaptation. The role has been played by veteran musical theater actresses Bernedette Peters and Vanessa Williams in the past on Broadway, so obviously Disney needed a huge name to put in the marquee role.

Though Meryl was nominated for a Golden Globe for her last musical project ("Momma Mia"), her performance outside of that lone nomination wasn't warmly embraced (the Globes nominate her more often than the Oscars do; she has a record 28 nominations). It's an easy call now to predict that she'll have 29 by the end of this year when the nominations are announced, but what is going on with Woods' Oscar chances?

Into The Woods Receives "Conservative" Changes

"Into the Woods" is one of the more curious films to land this year. For one thing, its source material is the heavily acclaimed musical by Stephen Soundheim. Not to mention that director Rob Marshall ("Chicago") is directing, with a cast including Emily Blunt, Anna Kendrick, Meryl Streep, Johnny Depp, Chris Pine and James Corden.