Around this time each year, we get a pretty good peek at what the Oscar landscape is going to look like going into the season. Most of the players in the Best Picture race have already debuted at the first three festivals of the Oscar season – Venice, Telluride and Toronto.

The first of the season, the Venice Film Festival, doesn’t have quite the acclaim or prestige of the other two festivals, but provides an avenue for one or two huge players to shine in a depleted field.

Last year, “Gravity” debuted to vast acclaim and went on to win seven Oscars. This year’s standout was “Birdman,” a film by Alejandro González Iñárritu about a Hollywood star (Michael Keaton) battling depression as his time in the limelight begins to dwindle.

The second of the season, the Telluride Film Festival, is a cozy four-day event tucked away in the mountains of Colorado. This 40-year-old festival caters to films looking to gain critical praise when commercial success isn’t necessarily in the cards.

It’s also become infamous in recent years for stealing debuts from the Toronto Film Festival. Simply by way of coming first, Telluride has grabbed the debuts of four of the last six Best Picture Oscar winners – “Slumdog Millionaire” (2008), “The King’s Speech” (2010), “Argo” (2012) and “12 Years a Slave” (2013) – not to mention many other contenders.

This year’s festival brought three original contenders to the table – “Wild,” “The Imitation Game” and “Rosewater” – plus two Cannes Film Festival debuts in May (“Foxcatcher” and “Mr. Turner”). Jon Stewart’s “Rosewater” gained some support, but isn’t expected to be a real player, whereas “Wild” will most likely garner a Best Actress nod (perhaps a win) for Reese Witherspoon and a Best Supporting Actress nod for Laura Dern.

“The Imitation Game” will get the critical praise, commercial love and the biggest push from the Weinstein Company (its production company) and will be hard to beat for Best Picture come Oscar season, not to mention a virtually guaranteed Best Actor nod for Benedict Cumberbatch.

The Toronto Film Festival is the film industry mecca. It draws the heavy-hitting production companies and deep-pocketed executives looking toward the debuts of potential Oscar contenders.

However, it seems as though it will only generate one Best Picture nomination from its crop of debuts. “The Theory of Everything,” a biopic about the life of Stephen Hawking, opened to almost unanimously positive reviews – most of the love directed at its star, Eddie Redmayne.

“Nightcrawler,” starring Jake Gyllenhaal, also debuted at Toronto and looks to have an outside shot at Best Picture and Best Cinematograpy nominations. But its best shot for a nod remains at Best Actor.

Looking forward, there are four potential Best Picture contenders on the horizon. Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Inherent Vice” and David Fincher’s “Gone Girl” are set to hit the New York Film Festival (Friday – Oct. 11), while Christopher Nolan’s “Interstellar” and Angelina Jolie’s “Unbroken” are slated for Nov. 7 and Dec. 25 release dates, respectively.

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