Winner of Best Picture at last week's Academy Awards, this star-studded, highly effective and tense procedural drama tells the true story of the Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation by a team of Boston Globe reporters who uncovered a widespread scandal of child abuse and cover-ups within the local Catholic Church.

In 2001 Walter Robinson (Michael Keaton), with the help of his tenacious Spotlight team of reporters, is slowly unraveling a series of systematic cover-ups of child molestation within the Massachusetts priesthood. But they have their work cut out. Despite repeated allegations of misconduct against minors under its care, the Church has long made a habit of simply moving the accused priests from parish to parish rather than allowing them to face justice. However, through a steady process of gathering information and a painstaking corroboration of hunches and leads, the investigative team begin to uncover a slow-dawning horror as the sheer scale of the epidemic comes into worldwide focus. Revelations that shine a light on a decade-long trail of corruption that goes to the highest levels of Boston’s religious, legal, and government establishments.

In the slow-building and quietly gripping mould of procedurals like All the President’s Men, this is disturbing subject matter that's expertly handled by director Tom McCarthy (The Station Agent, The Visitor) and his brilliant ensemble cast (including Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Stanley Tucci and John Slattery) with both a searching, meticulous intensity and a measured sensitivity.

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