Spotlight (film)

This article is about the 2015 film. For the 1927 film, see The Spotlight (film).

Spotlight
In a newsroom, a group of reporters meet up with an editor on a desk. The film's tagline under the title reads "BREAK THE STORY, BREAK THE SILENCE." Another tagline reads "The true story behind the scandal that shook the world." Additional credits and accolades appear in the bottom.
Theatrical release poster
Directed byTom McCarthy
Written by
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyMasanobu Takayanagi
Edited byTom McArdle
Music byHoward Shore
Production
companies
Distributed by
Release dates
  • September 3, 2015 (2015-09-03) (Venice)
  • November 6, 2015 (2015-11-06) (United States)
Running time
129 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$20 million[2]
Box office$98.7 million[3]

Spotlight is a 2015 American biographical drama film directed by Tom McCarthy and written by McCarthy and Josh Singer.[4][5] The film follows The Boston Globe's "Spotlight" team, the oldest continuously operating newspaper investigative journalist unit in the United States,[6] and its investigation into a decades-long coverup of widespread and systemic child sex abuse by numerous priests of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston. Although the plot was original, it is loosely based on a series of stories by the Spotlight team that earned The Globe the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.[7] The film features an ensemble cast including Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, John Slattery, Stanley Tucci, Brian d'Arcy James, Liev Schreiber, and Billy Crudup.[8]

Spotlight was shown in the Out of Competition section of the 72nd Venice International Film Festival,[9] the Telluride Film Festival and the Special Presentations section of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival.[10] It was released on November 6, 2015, by Open Road Films and grossed $98 million worldwide.[3] It received widespread critical praise, with critics lauding the performances of the cast, historical accuracy, and screenplay; it won numerous guilds' and critics' association awards, and was named one of the best films of 2015 by various publications. Spotlight won the Academy Award for Best Picture, along with Best Original Screenplay, from six total nominations, making it the first Best Picture winner since The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) to win only one other Oscar. The film also won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.

  1. ^ "SPOTLIGHT (15)". British Board of Film Classification. October 27, 2015. Retrieved October 27, 2015.
  2. ^ Jada Yuan (November 3, 2015). "Watching the Watchers: Tom McCarthy on Making Spotlight". Vulture. Retrieved November 7, 2015.
  3. ^ a b "Spotlight (2015)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved July 22, 2018.
  4. ^ Siegel, Tatiana (August 8, 2014). "Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton in Talks for Catholic Priest Sex Abuse Scandal Film". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved September 16, 2014.
  5. ^ "Participant Media's "Spotlight" Starring Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel Mcadams, Liev Schreiber And Stanley Tucci Goes To Camera In Boston Before Lensing In Toronto". 3BL Media. September 25, 2014. Archived from the original on October 24, 2014. Retrieved September 25, 2014.
  6. ^ Allen, Scott (June 22, 2012). "A distinguished history of digging up the truth". Boston Globe. Retrieved February 27, 2015.
  7. ^ "The Pulitzer Prizes | Citation". Pulitzer.org. Retrieved June 11, 2015.
  8. ^ Sneider, Jeff (August 8, 2014). "Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams in Talks to Star in Catholic Church Sex Scandal Drama (Exclusive)". TheWrap. Retrieved September 16, 2014.
  9. ^ Shanahan, Mark (September 3, 2015). "'Spotlight' gets glittering debut in Venice". Boston Globe. Retrieved November 7, 2015.
  10. ^ "Toronto to open with 'Demolition'; world premieres for 'Trumbo', 'The Program'". ScreenDaily. July 28, 2015. Retrieved July 28, 2015.