After an 11-day competition the Cannes Film festival has handed out its awards with many films surprising and others disappointing. The festival is known for showing films that will eventually contend for Oscar nominations. The following will present which films benefited from the screenings at Cannes and which of them will ultimately go into obscurity.

While Cannes is sometimes seen as too early for Oscar considerations, a number of films end up either being submissions from foreign countries or legitimate Oscar contenders. This year the films that benefited most from Cannes were "Foxcatcher" and "Mr. Turner." "Foxcatcher" was the biggest winner in terms of Oscar buzz as it scored rave reviews and had many pundits claiming that Steve Carell's fierce performance would be an automatic lock for Best Actor. The movie also benefited from a Best Director win for Bennett Miller. While the award never assures an Oscar nomination, there are some examples in which it has helped. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu won the award back in 2006 for his film "Babel," and the film went home with seven Oscar nominations the following year. "Foxcatcher" has been on pundit's radar for a number of months especially since it was supposed to be released last year before Sony Pictures Classics delayed it. The film is now slated to open on Nov. 21, which is in the middle of awards season and is likely headed to the fall festival slate.

Meanwhile "Mr. Turner" benefited as it also received rave reviews and won the Best Actor award for Timothy Spall. The win is important as he may be looking at an Oscar nomination after winning the award. Previous Best Actor winners at Cannes who have went on to get nominated or win Oscars include Bruce Dern for "Nebraska," Christoph Waltz for "Inglourious Basterds," Jean DuJardin for "The Artist" and Javier Bardem for "Biutiful." The movie is also likely to score a Best Screenplay nomination as the past three films that Leigh has made have all been nominated for the category. As for the other categories, it will all depend upon how big Sony Pictures Classic's campaign is.

Other films that benefited from the opening include "Winter Sleep," "Leviathan," "Mommy," and "The Wonders." Most of the time when a country has an award-winning Cannes film, that movie gets chosen as the official selection to represent the country for the Foreign Film Oscar category. Nuri Bilge Ceylan's previous film "Once Upon a Time in Anatolia" was submitted as the Turkish film and that movie won the Grand Prize. With a Palme D'Or win, the movie is a sure bet to be submitted to the Oscars. However if it does not get a US distributor quickly, it could suffer from a lack of a campaign. Russia is also likely to send "Leviathan" as the official selection especially since Sony Pictures took rights, and the company is sure to give the movie a formidable campaign. Meanwhile Canada could send "Mommy" since it is in French and has an upcoming director that critics are raving about. It also does not hurt that the film won the Jury award.

Argentina could also already have its selection with "Wild Tales." The film may not have won awards at the festival, but it received positive reviews. Additionally it also obtained U.S. distribution from Sony and it has Oscar-winning producer Pedro Almodovar backing it. These three factors could convince the country to submit this movie and possibly get a nomination.

The Grand Prix winner "The Wonders" could easily be Italy's contender for the Oscars. Italy tends to submit any film that premieres at Cannes. Last year the country submitted "The Great Beauty" after opening at Cannes and eventually won the Oscar. The country did the same thing in 2008 when "Gommorah" won the Grand Prize. While "The Wonders" does not have a U.S. distributor and was overlooked throughout the festival, the new win will easily get buyers interested. 

Competition films that were left in the middle of the line included "Two Days, One Night," "The Homesman," "Clouds of Sils Maria," "Timbuktu," "Map to the Stars," "Still the Water" and "Goodbye to Language." The Dardenne's latest movie "Two Days, One Night" had a lot of momentum coming into the awards night with many pundits predicting that Marion Cotillard would finally go home with a Best Actress award. However even though the movie was praised, it ultimately went home empty-handed. The lack of awards marked the third time Cotillard was praised for a performance but was overlooked. In 2011 the actress received rave reviews for "Rust and Bone" but lost to the actresses of "Beyond the Hills" and last year she received praise for "The Immigrant" but lost to Berenice Bejo for "The Past."  IFC Films is distributing the movie and even though Cotillard has a great performance, the Oscars almost always ignore foreign performances. Additionally Dardenne films are not always the official selection from Belgium. As a result the movie may not be an Oscar contender come January.

Meanwhile " The Homesman" went to Cannes with a lot of awards buzz. However the film underperformed with critics and also failed to garner a single award at the festival. The movie was picked up by Saban Films which has already promised to build a huge Oscar campaign. Additionally a number of films that have premiered at Cannes and went home empty-handed have still garnered Oscar nominations. "No Country for Old Men" went to the Croisette but failed to win any awards back in 2007. However the movie ended up winning the Oscar for Best Picture among others. In 2008 "Changeling" also went home empty-handed but still scored three Oscar nominations.  It is hard to know what the fate of "The Homesman" will be come fall season but if the movie goes to the fall festivals it may garner more momentum.

"Clouds of Sils Maria" is another movie that has an all-star cast that includes Kristen Stewart, Chloe Grace Moretz and Juliette Bionche. The movie opened to positive reviews, but also went home empty-handed. The movie is unlikely to be an Oscar contender as IFC Films is releasing it; the company is not generally active during awards season. Additionally, the company has not selected a release date and that could suggest it may wait for next year to release it.

Japan's "Still the Water" was one of the films that got overlooked throughout the festival. While it had buzz and was praised for its calm pace, the movie received no awards and left without any distributor. These two factors may hurt any type of Oscars.  Additionally last year the country surprised pundits by sending "The Great Passage" instead of the favorite "Like Father Like Son."  "IThe Great Passage" at teh Hong International Film Festival while "Like Father Like Son" competed for the Palme D'Or at Cannes.

Jean-Luc Godard's "Goodbye to Language" is also a tricky suggestion especially because France always surprises with its Oscar choices. The country has a huge industry and does not always go for the most obvious choices. "Blue is the Warmest Color" won the Palme D'Or last year but did not qualify because it did not open on time. Additionally the movie also failed to win the Cesar in France. Instead the country submitted "Renoir" as the Oscar foreign film submission. The same situation happened with "Rust and Bone," which did not get selected by France to represent the country at the Oscars. It will be hard to tell where this film lands come fall.

David Cronenberg's "Map to the Stars" will also be having a hard time getting nominations. The movie opened to mixed reception and was unable to pick up a distributor. Additionally Cronenberg is known for never getting nominations. While Julianne Moore surprised by winning the Best Actress award, the implications are not always the same in this category as it is for male performances. Recent winners have included Bejo for "The Past" and Kirsten Dunst for "Melancholia," and while these two actresses received buzz, the Cannes awards did not translate to Oscars. Additionally Moore has had a hard time getting Oscar nominations since 2002. In 2009 the actress received buzz for her work in "A Single Man" but failed to get the nomination. The same happened in 2010 with "The Kids Are All Right." That year she was overlooked because Annette Benning received all the buzz and awards. As a result of mixed reviews and no distributor, it's hard to expect any Oscar nominations for "Maps to the Stars."

"Timbuktu" was one of the competition dramas that got overlooked as it opened the same day as "Grace of Monaco." The movie was picked up by the Cohen Media Group but Mauritania is a country which has never sent a film to the Oscars and likely does not have the money to build a campaign for the award. As a result it is difficult to see if this move will be talked about come Oscar season.

While there are a number of films that may have chances and others that are certain, a few competition films have ended there Oscar chances. One of these films that entered with a lot of Oscar buzz was "The Search." The movie was directed by Oscar winner Michel Hazanavicius and this latest movie was his follow-up to Best Picture winner "The Artist." However the drama about the Chechnya conflict opened to mixed reviews. Additionally it failed to get a distributor especially after Fox Searchlight and the Weinstein Company were interested.

"The Captive" also disappointed as many critics called it an embarrassment. While the movie will be distributed by A24 in the fall, this latest thriller has terrible reviews and acquired no buzz after its premiere. Ken Loach's "Jimmy's Hall" and Bertrand Bonello's "Saint Laurent" were also movies that opened with a lot of buzz but obtained mixed reception and failed to conquer awards at Cannes. Both of these movies will be distributed by Sony Classics but could easily be bumped to 2015 especially with the company's full slate.

The Oscar nominations will be announced in January and will be presented on Feb. 22.