The Oscar race has officially begun, with the Telluride Film Festival having showcased a number of Oscar contenders.

For the past few years, the festival has showcased Oscar winners, and in many cases, the Best Picture winner has made its world premiere at Telluride. The exception was last year's "Birdman," which made its world prmeiere at Venice before heading to Telluride and later New York. However, previous winners "12 Years a Slave," "Argo," and "The King's Speech" all had their world premieres at Telluride and started their awards run there.

The race has just begun, and this year, there is currently no big front-runner. However, a number of films have already won a lot of steam.

The big winner thus far is "Steve Jobs," a movie that had a troubled pre-production. The film, which was originally to be distributed by Sony and to be directed by David Fincher, had a lot of skeptics. However, the Danny Boyle film premiered to rousing applause and had many fans. Michael Fassbender, who stars as Jobs, was particularly a winner, as he scored great reviews for his turn and is considered the actor to beat this year.

Kate Winslet, who has not been in the Oscar conversation since 2008, also scored great reviews for her role in the film, and Boyle is likely to be nominated for Best Director for the film.

"Carol," by Todd Haynes, continued to pick up steam, as it was accompanied with a tribute for Rooney Mara. The film made its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won Best Actress, and has been hailed as an Oscar contender since then. The movie is slated for the New York Film Festival, and most critics believe this will be the film to be beat during awards season.

Brie Larson set herself up as a big awards contender for her film "Room." The movie by Lenny Abrahamson surprised audiences and had critics raving. The movie is being released by A24, who have already promised a big awards push. Larson broke out a few years ago for her work in "Short term 12" and won a number of critics' awards. However, the film never took off with the Academy. Perhaps this year will be her break out at the Oscars.

Carey Mulligan also picked up steam for her work in "Suffragette." The movie made its world premiere to good reviews, but it was Mulligan who really benefited from the screening. Whether the film gets a Best Picture nomination or not is still a mystery, as critics were not completely in love it.

Johnny Depp and Michael Keaton continued to score rave reviews for their work in "Black Mass" and "Spotlight." Both films played at Venice, where they opened to Oscar buzz. While Depp is likely to get a Best Actor nod this year, it looks like Keaton could be the front-runner for the Best Supporting Actor category. "Black Mass" is proving to be the comeback all were hoping for Depp, while "Spotlight" continued to show Keaton's untapped acting skills after his Oscar nomination for "Birdman."

The Berlin winner "45 Years" also continued to obtain buzz. The film by Andrew Haigh was a huge success for Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay, as they continued to build Oscar buzz. IFC Films also dated the movie for December, which means that the studio is hoping for an Oscar campaign. However, it will be interesting to see if the company can do the same thing it did last year with "Boyhood" and "Two Days One Night."

While there are still many films that have yet to premiere, the awards race already looks to be competitive and overcrowded.

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