With the Toronto Film Festival having come to a close, a number of films disappointed while others surprised and continued to gain buzz.

The festival is known as a launching pad for many films to garner buzz and it is also known as the start to awards season. Among the films that benefited from the festival was "The Imitation Game." After premiering at the Telluride Film Festival, buzz was incredibly high and pundits were saying it was an automatic Best Picture contender. After having won the People's Choice at Toronto, its status has been confirmed.

The award has been won by many Best Picture winners, including "Slumdog Millionaire," "The King's Speech" and "12 Years a Slave." It has also been won by Best Picture nominees, including "Silver Linings Playbook" and "Precious."

"The Imitation Game" premiered to rave reviews and has the Weinstein Company backing its campaign. As a result, expect this movie to be a huge contender in the next few months.

"Still Alice" is most likely the film that benefited most from a world premiere at Toronto because the film opened to universal acclaim and critics and pundits stated that Julianne Moore could likely win an Oscar for her performance. The film had entered the film with no distributor, but after its premiere Oscar buzz began and Sony Pictures Classics acquired U.S. distribution.

The movie is now scheduled to hit theaters this fall, and Moore may be on the road to her first Oscar.

"The Theory of Everything" world premiered to outstanding results. Actors Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones received rave reviews and many pundits hailed them as locks in their respective acting categories. The film was also well-received and became an automatic Best Picture contender.

Sony Pictures Classics continued to build buzz with its trifecta of films. "Whiplash," "Foxcatcher" and "Mr. Turner" all had positive word out of Toronto and continued to pick up the correct buzz necessary for the Oscars.

The distributor also brought its acclaimed foreign films "Levithan" and "Wild Tales" to TIFF and audiences continued to enjoy the features.

John Stewart's "Rosewater" also picked up good word out of Toronto, and Gael Garcia Bernal is receiving positive buzz for his performance.

Jake Gyllenhaal also picked up Oscar buzz for his portrayal in the film "Nightcrawler." The movie received rave reviews, but pundits fear it is a genre picture that the Academy usually ignores.

Meanwhile, Reese Witherspoon continued to get support for her role in "Wild." The Jean-Marc Vallee picture, however, continues to get mixed reaction, which could hurt its Best Picture aspirations.  

A few movies garnered Oscar buzz, but walked home without a distributor. Among those movies included Mike Binder's "Black and White" starring Octavia Spencer and Kevin Costner. The drama features one of Costner's best performances in years and it also features strong work by Spencer.

Jennifer Aniston also received a standing ovation for her work in "Cake." The actress immediately received Oscar buzz for her transformative work. However, the movie was received with mixed reviews. If a distributor obtains distribution rights it could be Aniston's first chance at an Oscar nomination.  

"99 Homes" continued to struggle with an acquisition. After strong premieres at Venice and Telluride, the film premiered to ecstatic reactions at Toronto. Starring Andrew Garfield and Michael Shannon, the movie could be a hard sell, but it surely has the award-caliber credit necessary to pull ahead.

A number of films, however, flopped and can be considered out of the race. The Toronto opening night film "The Judge" was met with mixed reactions, and even though Robert Downey Jr, and Robert Duvall will get buzz for their performances, the movie did not live up to expectations.

"St. Vincent" may have been the runner-up for the People's Choice, but it lacked the awards buzz that many expected. Bill Murray was said to be the only stand out in the movie and many pundits said his role was a shoe-in in the Golden Globe race, but a hard sell for the Academy Awards.

Warner Bros' "The Good Lie" was said to be a feel good movie, but not strong enough for awards consideration, while "The Equalizer" proved to be a fun action film, but not a masterpiece.

Jason Reitman's "Men, Women, and Children" was also greeted with mixed reviews, many critics calling it the most divisive film of the festival.  

"The Drop" obtained strong reviews but many critics felt it was the actors who really carried the movie and that perhaps James Gandolfini would finally get his posthumous nomination.

The closing night film, "A Little Chaos" starring Kate Winslet and Alan Rickman, was a complete flop. Not only did the film open to bad reviews, but it also failed to obtain a U.S. distributor.

Awards season has a long way to go and it is just getting started. With the New York Film Festival opening in a week and "Inherent Vice" and "Gone Girl" making their world premieres, the race could change. 

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