TIFF 2018 is over, but the past two weeks have seen the screening of some spectacular films. Here are the best and most talked about movies of the season, from A Star is Born to Roma.

The biggest festival of its kind in North America has established itself over the years as one of the highlights of the movie-going calendar as well as a guaranteed precursor for awards hype. Things proved to be no different this year as TIFF welcomed exciting premieres – both worldwide and for North America – of much talked about movies across budgets, genres and star power.

Related: Biggest & Most Important Films Showing At TIFF 2018

But, now the dust has settled, what emerges as the top of the pack? Here are the best and most talked about films from Toronto 2018, including a few surprises that nobody saw coming.

A Star is Born

Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper singing in A Star is Born.

Bradley Cooper’s reboot of the classic Hollywood story was not the most universally acclaimed film of TIFF but it was easily the most talked about, not to mention the most beloved by those who latched onto it. Coming off the backs of its rapturously received premiere at the Venice Film Festival, A Star Is Born proved to be irresistible to many and cemented Cooper’s status both as an actor and an up-and-coming director. The star of the title, pop diva Lady Gaga, also garnered rave reviews for her first major leading role in a film. Oscar talk was impossible to avoid for A Star is Born, which proved to be just as popular with audiences who literally queued around the block for a chance to see it.

Watch: A Star Is Born Trailer

Roma

Roma 2018 movie cast

Days before it premiered to Toronto audiences, Alfonso Cuarón's semi-autobiographical drama Roma won the top prize, the Golden Lion, at the Venice Film Festival. The Netflix exclusive found similar levels of enthusiasm from TIFF critics, with the black-and-white drama inspired by Cuarón's own childhood becoming a runner-up in the festival's People's Choice Award. Netflix had a number of films screen at TIFF, including Outlaw King starring Chris Pine, but this one was their undisputed champion at the festival and could signal a major breakthrough for the streaming service's path to Hollywood critical legitimacy.

Watch: Roma Trailer

Widows

Steve McQueen

Steve McQueen’s follow-up to 12 Years a Slave had much obvious crowd-pleasing appeal thanks to its heist set-up but the drama, starring Viola Davis and Colin Farrell among others, had much more bubbling beneath the surface. Widows, a remake of a British mini-series written by crime author Lynda LaPlante, had a creative team to die for: Oscar winner McQueen, Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn, multiple Oscar-winning and nominated actors, a score by Hans Zimmer, and much more. The twists and turns of this story of a group of widowed women who decide to finish the job that killed their bank robber husbands kept even the most cynical audiences on their toes.

Watch: Widows Trailer

Green Book

Many had expected an obvious crowd-pleaser like A Star is Born or a clearer critical darling like Roma to take home TIFF’s coveted People’s Choice Award. The award, voted on by audiences who attend the festival, is often taken as something of an Oscar predictor (previous winners have included La La Land, Room, The Imitation Game and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri). This year, much to the surprise of many, audiences chose Green Book.

Going into the festival, many critics had preemptively written off the film as a dud. And, in fairness, the trailer had been uninspiring and director Peter Farrelly was better known for gross-out broad comedies like Dumb and Dumber. Green Book, however, proved to be a highly appealing mainstream drama. With Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen in the two lead roles, the film retells a true story of jazz pianist Don Shirley and his tour through the American Deep South with his driver. It seems audiences were hungry for an old-school crowd pleaser.

Watch: Green Book Trailer

If Beale Street Could Talk

Tish and Fonny from If Beale Street Could Talk lean their heads together on the train

Barry Jenkins, fresh from the triumph of Moonlight, broke ground by making the first film ever to be adapted from the work of legendary writer James Baldwin. While his adaptation of the classic novel If Beale Street Could Talk, about a young black woman trying to prove the innocence of her fiancé who has been falsely accused of rape, was a quiet and elegiac story, it remained highly popular with audiences. It even took home second place in the People's Choice Award.

Watch: If Beale Street Could Talk Trailer

Page 2 of 2: Five More Great Films From TIFF 2018

Can You Ever Forgive Me?

There were plenty of films premiering at TIFF that were based on a true story or inspired by real-life events but few had the caustic joy of Marielle Heller’s Can You Ever Forgive Me? Based on the memoir by writer Lee Israel, Melissa McCarthy starred as a down and out biographer who becomes a literary forger to pay the bills. The low-key drama proved to be immensely appealing and the double act of McCarthy and Richard E. Grant won both actors some of the best reviews of their careers. Can You Ever Forgive Me? was an unexpected delight for many who had written it off as just another biopic thanks to its cutting wit and perceptive portrayal of a woman who is very difficult to love but still easy to root for.

Vox Lux

2018 was a TIFF oddly populated with many stories about women musicians experiencing tough times. A Star is Born was the obvious one taking up much of the spotlight but there was also the very sweet if somewhat slight Teen Spirit, starring Elle Fanning, and the fiery emotional overload of Her Smell, featuring Elisabeth Moss in full Courtney Love mode. Yet the one that had the most divisive conversations surrounding it was Vox Lux. Directed by Brady Corbet and starring Natalie Portman, this very esoteric drama depicted a trainwreck popstar whose rise to fame happened on the backs of two major tragedies. Sia provided the songs, Scott Walker wrote the score, Willem Dafoe was the narrator, and the whole film proved to be even weirder than that combination of people suggests. This nihilistic story of the pitfalls of celebrity wasn't for everyone but those who loved it couldn't get enough of Vox Lux.

Watch: Vox Lux Trailer

In Fabric

British director Peter Strickland’s latest film wasn’t on many people’s radars once the festival started, but the moment news spread of this arthouse horror about a cursed dress that kills people, entrance to press screenings became a much-coveted privilege. With a premise like that, how could it not become one of the most talked about films of TIFF? In Fabric does indeed feature a cursed red dress that kills people, but it was also a fascinating homage to Hammer Horror and Dario Argento, with a hilarious satirical take on consumerist culture and Kafka-style bureaucratic nightmares. In Fabric won’t have a massive amount of mainstream appeal outside of festival season but it was a delight for those lucky enough to see it.

Shoplifters

A still from Shoplifters

The legendary Japanese director Hirozaku Kore-eda took home the coveted Palme D'Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival for Shoplifters. The film, already a commercial success in its home country, won over audiences with a similarly universal appeal at TIFF. The understated but deeply moving drama about a lower working class family who shoplift to survive and take in a young girl offered a touching but complex view of a very tough to understand group of people. Japan has already selected the film as their entrant for the Best Foreign Language Film award at the 2019 Oscars, so this one could continue its hot streak well into next year.

Halloween

Many films premiered at TIFF’s Midnight Madness, bringing genre scares to the festival, although not all lived up to the hype. The Predator, in particular, proved to be a disappointment to many. Fortunately, David Gordon Green's sequel-slash-reboot of the Halloween franchise premiered to much greater excitement. The new film brings back Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode and wipes the slate clean of many terrible sequels, leaving room for one of horror cinema's greatest villains to go back to basics. Excited fans who queued for hours to see the film’s midnight premiere were not disappointed.

Next: Oscars 2019 Best Picture Predictions