[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.

The film also won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.

An assistant district attorney then enters the precinct and tells the detective policemen not to let the press learn what has happened.

As the team realizes the sheer scale of the investigation, it begins to take a toll on their lives: reporter Matt Carroll learns one of the priest rehabilitation centers is on the same block as his family's home but cannot tell his children or his neighbors to avoid spoiling the story; reporter Sacha Pfeiffer finds herself unable to attend church with her grandmother; Rezendes pushes to get the story out quickly to prevent further abuse; and Robinson faces pushback from some of his close friends who he learns were complicit in covering up the abuse.

They regain momentum when Rezendes learns from Garabedian that there are publicly available documents that confirm Cardinal Law was made aware of the abuse and ignored it.

After the Globe wins a case to have even more legal documents unsealed that provide evidence of that larger picture, the Spotlight team finally begins to write the story and plans to publish their findings in early 2002.

The story goes to print with a web link to the documents that expose Law's inaction and a phone number for victims of abusive priests.

A textual epilogue notes that Law resigned in December 2002 and was eventually promoted to the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, and presents a list of 105 U.S. communities and 101 others around the world where major scandals involving abuse by priests have taken place.

When McCarthy was asked how he and his co-author tackled the research and writing process, he said: As I said, I passed [turned down the film] the first time!

[25] Singer told Creative Screenwriting that one of his goals for the film was to highlight the power of journalism, which he feels has been waning.

[34] The brief scene in which Rezendes watches a children's church choir perform "Silent Night" was filmed in St.

[40] Spotlight was released by Universal Studios Home Entertainment on DVD and Blu-ray in the United States on February 23, 2016.

The website's summary of the critical consensus is that "Spotlight gracefully handles the lurid details of its fact-based story while resisting the temptation to lionize its heroes, resulting in a drama that honors the audience as well as its real-life subjects.

[46] Variety's Justin Chang called the film "a superbly controlled and engrossingly detailed account of the Boston Globe's Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation into the widespread pedophilia scandals and subsequent cover-ups within the Catholic Church.

[51] At the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival, Spotlight finished third in the audience balloting for the People's Choice Award.

[58] On the Catholic News Service, auxiliary bishop of Los Angeles Robert Barron said that it is "not a bad movie", as it shows how the wider community shares the responsibility for sexual abuse committed by priests, but that the film is wrong to insinuate that the Church has not reformed.

"[60] Luca Pellegrini on the Vatican Radio website wrote that the Globe reporters "made themselves examples of their most pure vocation, that of finding the facts, verifying sources, and making themselves—for the good of the community and of a city—paladins of the need for justice.

"[60][61] In February 2016, a Vatican City commission on clerical sex abuse attended a private screening of the film.

[63][64][65] A January 7, 2016, article in The New York Times cited author David F. Pierre Jr., who said that Spotlight "is a misrepresentation of how the Church dealt with sexual abuse cases", asserting that the movie's biggest flaw was its failure to portray psychologists who had assured Church officials that abusive priests could be safely returned to ministry after undergoing therapy treatments.

Open Road Films rebutted the detractor, saying he was "perpetuating a myth in order to distract from real stories of abuse.

"[66] The film was attacked by Jack Dunn (played by Gary Galone), the public relations head and a member of the board at Boston College High School, for portraying him as callous and indifferent to the scandal.

While it will never erase the horrific experience of being falsely portrayed in an Academy Award-winning film, this public statement enables me to move forward with my reputation and integrity intact.