Yes, Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga will be in the thick of the Oscar race with “A Star Is Born,” the kind of crowd-pleasing film that should also figure prominently in awards talk for the next five months. But “A Star Is Born” is hardly the only film with a clear path to the Dolby Theatre. Most of the season’s top contenders were unveiled during the first batch of major fall film festivals: Venice, Telluride and Toronto, and then New York.

So this is a good time to sit back and assess where we are at this point in the season, before a final batch of contenders is unveiled around the AFI Fest in November. We have a few clear frontrunners, though none without question marks hanging over them. We have some upstarts who have come on strong and could be real players. And we have a couple of films from earlier in the year that just might have staying power.