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?

"Room" Wins Big & Surprises at TIFF

The People's Choice Award (the Toronto Film Festival's Best Picture Award) has been given to films such as "Silver Lining's Playbook", "12 Years A Slave" and "The Imitation Game" to name a few. To say this award isn't an indicator of Oscar success (whether you're nominated for Best picture or actually win the whole thing) is foolish.

In a festival full of high-profile films such as "Spotlight", "Brooklyn" (the crowd pleasers), "The Danish Girl" (awards-bait) and other buzzy films such as "Our Brand Is Crisis", "Freeheld" and "Black Mass" (just to name a few), it's easy to lose track of all of the films attempting to make a splash.

Toronto Film Festival Lineup

TIFF (The Toronto International Film Festival) has announced its official lineup this morning. Running from September 4th to the 14th, several films will have their official world premiere here, while some holdovers from Cannes will also appear to build upon the buzz they got (or didn't get) there.

TIFF is an even more important, and influential Oscar precursor than Cannes; last year's winner of the People's Choice Award "12 Years A Slave" won the Oscar for Best Picture, with almost all of the other recipients following suit, or winning other Oscars including: "Silver Linings Playbook", "The King's Speech", "Precious", "Slumdog Millionaire", Whale Rider" and "American Beauty" have all been recognized in some way by the Academy Awards.

Take a look at the full list below (I've also included trailers for the films if they're available by making the film title a link).