Well Sandra seems like 100% a lock for a Best Actress nomination at this point.

So excited for the Gravity reaction. This movie will be a nice birthday present for me this year!

What should I try and see at TIFF? Any good recommendations?

12 Years a Slave
Blood Ties
Horns
A Promise
Tracks

Thanks! I will check these for availability!

I'd give Gravity the VEBPF (Very Early Best Picture Frontrunner) belt right now.

Well... it's the only contender with reviews. So... obviously.

Not really. Things like Inside Llewyn Davis and the films that have premiered at Cannes have had reviews out for a while. And things like Labor Day are starting to get reviewed as well. It easily has the strongest reviews thus far of that bunch.

You mean of those three movies? Yes. It is the frontrunner of those three. Of which one I've never heard of.

If it's Labor Day you have never heard of, it is the new film by Jason Reitman (Juno, Up in the Air), with Kate Winslet, Josh Brolin, and Tobey Maguire.

I do wonder at the potency of what is in Cory's pipe, by the way, since Inside Llewyn Davis is at 100 with eight reviews on Metacritic while Gravity is only at, ha, 99 with seven.

If we are going to play this game.

Please see Tracks, O, so I can live vicariously through you. In college, I wrote a paper on the memoir from which it is adapted for a course on Australian literature and culture. So, so excited to see the film adaptation, particularly with Mia Wasikowska in the lead role and the talented John Curran (The Painted Veil, Stone) directing.

Yes, I've never heard of the normal titled movie, not the weirdly titled movie.

The number of Oscar contenders keeps building:

Prisoners, 12 Years a Slave and Philomena have all been received extremely positively at their festival screenings so far.

I don't believe Philomena will factor into the race much beyond Dench, but the fact the film is very warmly received definitely boosts her standing in the competitive best-actress race.

I hope the Weinsteins mount a strong campaign for The Grandmaster. It at least deserves technical nominations.

Ron Howard's Rush is getting pretty good reviews too.

Trying VERY hard to get Gravity tickets this weekend. If not, I'll see it in theaters in a month.

So far, have a ticket to You Are Here starring Owen Wilson, Zach Galifianakis and Amy Poehler. Director is the creator of Mad Men.

Saw a couple of reviews for Captain Phillips and The Fifth Estate. Look like both films are pretty good with performances getting highlighted, although not big awards contenders. Still looking forward to seeing both.

The Captain Phillips reviews are overall a lot more positive than Fifth Estate, which seems to be getting a big "meh" from a lot of people. Captain Phillips early notices aren't amazing, but they're pretty solid. Should another Editing contender for Greengrass, and Hanks could be a factor in the Actor race.

Yeah, just checked the early reviews at RT for Fifth Estate, and they are pretty mediocre. Cumberbatch is getting good inks though, and it seems he is destined to get nominated at some point of his career.

http://www.metacritic.com/movie/rush/critic-reviews

So glad to see this movie doing well with critics. Very well-deserved. It's contender (though not for winning) now.

It's not looking like Dallas Buyers Club will be any kind of threat for Best Picture, but McConaughey and Jared Leto are both getting raves after its debut at Toronto yesterday.

TIFF update (more like a review but since its TIFF related, I put it in here):

Today I watched You Are Here, directed by Matthew Weiner (Creator of Mad Men). The film stars Owen Wilson, Zach Galifianakis and Amy Poehler.

So Matthew Weiner stayed for a Q & A afterwards, but Zach's wife went into labor so he couldn't attend. Owen and Amy were not there unfortunately but Amy went to the premiere, this was the second screening.

It's a solid film and probably the best acting I've seen from Zach G. He's quite good in this.

It's a bit melodramatic but a nice movie about families and growing up. It won't be winning any big awards I think or sweeping the box office, but still good to see. What was interesting during the Q & A was that the director said he wrote this role for Owen Wilson and that was eight years ago. He had trouble getting the script to him.

John Hamm of all people suggested Zach G. But that was pre-Hangover.

It probably won't be released until spring 2014, but Weinsteins are nearing a deal to purchase John Carney (Once)'s new movie Can a Song Save Your Life?, starring Keira Knightley, Mark Ruffalo, Adam Levine and Hailee Steinfeld.

Reportedly they dropped $7M to acquire rights and $20M for P&A, so it looks like they think they have something special there.

What is Harvey's big one this year?

So far, 12 Years a Slave is running away with this.