Gabourey 'Gabby' Sidibe stars as Clareece 'Precious' Jones in gritty ghetto drama 'Precious'.

Toronto is recognized universally as being the start of awards season and the place where studios launch their Oscar campaigns. You can always tell which films they’re going to push by the relative lavishness of the parties. My suspicions were aroused last year by the oyster mountain at Fox Searchlight’s "Slumdog Millionaire" party.

I felt the same inkling at the Blackberry/Lionsgate "Precious" party, as foie gras crostini were pressed on me, that we will be seeing much more of this fine film and in particular Mo'Nique's much talked about performance.

Film festivals can often start with a bang and slowly fizzle until all that is left are some straggly-looking journalists sitting around eating stale sandwiches and trying to file copy on ancient laptops.

But this year, the Toronto International Film Festival flipped things around launching on a low-key note with Jon Amiel’s Charles Darwin biopic "Creation" starring couple Jennifer Connolly and Paul Bettany. Despite good reviews, film has failed, thus far, to secure a U.S. distributor or much coverage.

Things only really started to get going at the weekend with the premiere of Iraq war satire “The Men Who Stare at Goats,” starring George Clooney, Ewan McGregor and Jeff Bridges (aka "The Dude"). The weekend's other big hitter was and "Up in the Air," also starring Clooney, which had critics raving and the Oscar pundits buzzing.

Clooney walked the carpet for both films with a bandaged hand, which he also had at Venice; but declined to do any other interviews, which is a shame because I imagine interviewing him would be fun.

"Capitalism: A Love Story" had its first public outing on Sunday to the usual Michael Moore film love/hate reception. However you feel about Moore, the film is certainly entertaining and speaks to the despair of America's working class during tough economic times. Moore has sympathy: "It’s crazy," he tells me, "We live in a democracy. There’s supposed to be some kind of equitable distribution of something here. It’s not set up for just a few to be calling the shots and everyone else scrambling for what’s left."

The festival is also careful to make things fun for the city it calls home, showcasing various events in public space Yonge-Dundas Square. A crowd of blood covered zombies lurched there through the city to greet horror icon George Romero, with one over-zealous zombie drooling blue goo onto our cameraman’s white sneaker.

The day after, the square was taken over by a roller derby to celebrate actress Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut "Whip It," which drew crowds of press and onlookers eager for Barrymore and star Ellen Page to recreate their recent smooch in Marie Claire magazine.