The whole story of Morten Tyldum’s “The Imitation Game,” the Oscar buzzed feature about British mathematician Alan Turing, gets the cover of Time magazine this week. This movie also premiered last night to rapturous applause.  Benedict Cumberbatch leads a  knock out cast into the Oscar race in a film that so far everyone who’s seen it loves. I mean, loves. I will have more in the AM about the film’s premiere Monday night as well as a lunch earlier in the day at the Four Seasons. Suffice to say,  Keira Knightley could run for office and win if she wanted to. “The Imitation Game” has the Best Ensemble of any cast this season. At lunch, Walter Isaacson asked her about being the only woman in a big cast of men. Keira replied: “I’m always the only woman, so it was no different than usual.” Lucky guys.

MORE TUESDAY MORNING: Benedict Cumberbatch gets a HUGE Oscar push when he appears later this week on the cover of TIME Magazine with a rare Enigma Machine. The machine had be to be brought down to Los Angeles last week from the Computer History Museum in Mountainview, California. It has has never left the museum, but former TIME editor in chief Walter Isaacson, whose book “The Innovators” includes Turing, made it happen.

The TIME cover was the talk of last night’s star studded premiere at the Ziegfeld Theater and later at Tavern on the Green, where Cumberbatch introduced his fiancee Sophie Hunter. He told me earlier at the Four Seasons lunch: “I’ve found my own Cumber-bitch and I’m going to marry her!” Ben’s legions of female fans are known as Cumber-bitches, or Cumber-babes, as it were. Erudite and soft spoken, Cumberbatch really is the modern Olivier. He’s a perfect pitch man for “The Imitation Game,” too. He can sell the movie and talk about Turing effortlessly. The Academy loves him, too. He’s definitely a front runner for Best Actor.

The lunch also featured Keira, Matthew Goode– who will be joining “Downton Abbey” as Lady Mary’s latest suitor, Charles Dance, Matthew Beard, director Tyldum, Mark Strong, and Allen Leech– the latter of course is Branson on “Downtown Abbey.” Leech has dropped quite a few pounds since I saw him in Toronto in September. He looks about ten years younger. “I had to do it!” he told me. “You should see what they feed us!”  We talked about “Downton Abbey” going on to its 6th season. I said it will probably go to a 7th or 8th. “How will we do it?” Leech wondered. “I’d have to age. Maggie Smith keeps joking her character must be 179 years old by now!” He imitated Dame Maggie perfectly.

I ran into another soap opera star at Tavern on the Green– Susan Lucci, with husband Helmut Huber. Susan is a doll, always fun. She climbed out of the Prospect Park debacle of “All My Children” and has two TV shows– “Devious Maids” and her show on the ID channel about criminal re-enactments. She’s a survivor! Also at the party: Bette Midler’s Yale trained actress daughter Sophie von Hasselburg, who’s just finishing a run off Broadway. What a great young lady— really poised, full of personality, very attractive, and head on straight about fame. She’s a star in the making!

The Oprah Winfrey and Brad Pitt produced “Selma” received two thunderous standing ovations tonight at its first New York screening. Ava DuVernay’s extraordinary film about Martin Luther King’s history making civil rights March leaps right into the top tier of this year’s Oscar race.  David Oyelowo gives the performance of a lifetime as King, defining him on film finally after all these years. Watching “Selma” you really feel like all the plays, movies Tv shows, songs– every theater piece about King– all of it culminates in this film.

I am not kidding when I say they were standing ovations, either. There’s a lump in your throat at the of “Selma,” a movie that wisely takes a a snapshot of King’s life from the moment he wins the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 through the Selma march in 1965. It’s during this time that he successful forces Lyndon Johnson to create and pass the Voters Rights Act. Tom Wilkinson is effortlessly good as a cantankerous LBJ who realizes his legacy could be destroyed by racist Alabama governor George Wallace (a perfectly slimy Tim Roth).

There’s really wonderful supporting work from Carmen Ejogo as Coretta Scott King, Alessandro Nivola as John Doar (who just passed away in real life), both Lorraine Toussaint and Oprah Winfrey, and extended cameos from Martin Sheen and Cuba Gooding Jr.

Cinematographer Bradford Young (who also has “Pawn Sacrifice” and “A Most Violent Year”) gives “Selma” a convincing feel in muted colors that blossom toward the end of the movie. The version we saw last night also featured the theme song, written and recorded by Jay Z and John Legend. It’s a winner.

I met Ava Duvernay about ten years ago. She was Jennifer Hudson’s publicist. But she wanted to be a director. She made a great little indie film called “Middle of Nowhere.” She picked up “Selma” after Lee Daniels post-“The Butler” decided not do it. She’d better thank him in her speeches. Quite an accomplishment. And the movie got the seal of approval from Richard Valeriani, former NBC correspondent, who covered the Selma march. He told me she got it right.

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