Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Catholic
Religious Music & Entertainment
‘Spotlight’: Did Anti-Catholicism Fuel Its Oscars Best Picture Win?

‘Spotlight’: Did Anti-Catholicism Fuel Its Oscars Best Picture Win?

Last updated on: March 1, 2016 at 9:47 am by Kate O'Hare

‘Spotlight’: Did Anti-Catholicism Fuel Its Oscars Best Picture Win? 2016-03-01T09:47:54-08:00 Kate O'Hare

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Let’s be honest: a lot of Catholics would have heaved a sigh of relief if “Spotlight” — the searing drama about The Boston Globe’s investigation into the priest sex-abuse scandal in Boston, published in early 2002 — had not won Best Picture on Sunday night.

Since the movie came out last November, and even before, Catholics braced for the ugly press that would inevitably follow the rehashing of this watershed moment in Church history. Yeah, we’ve come a very long way since 2002 in dealing with the issue externally and internally. Yeah, we’re not the only place, or even the current place, where child sex abuse is prevalent (public schools, prestigious private schools, youth sports teams, Penn State, scouting, Hollywood itself, etc., all have serious issues), but no one wants to hear about that.

The inescapable fact is: We’re Christ’s Pilgrim Church on Earth, and our priests molested children and teens.

The details of how we’ve dealt with this are important to us, but to the news media and the entertainment industry, it’s not a sexy or dramatic story.

The numbers of reported cases have precipitously declined since the scandals broke (almost all of the cases discussed during the height of the scandals were already decades old — and, obviously, one is too many), but it happened.

No one knows better than us the price we’ve paid, and continue to pay, for what was done, and for the devastating way it was (or wasn’t) handled. And while the Church is riding high on the popularity of Pope Francis, “Spotlight” served as a humbling reminder of our fallen nature.

One might be tempted to think that rampant anti-Catholicism was behind “Spotlight” taking home its Oscar, especially since star Mark Ruffalo, writer Josh Singer and director Tom McCarthy joined a 20-person rally for victims of priest sex-abuse outside the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles the afternoon of the awards.

And then there was this this parting shot by producer Michael Sugar during his acceptance speech at the Feb. 28 ceremony:

“Pope Francis, it is time to protect the children and restore the faith.”

Sugar may not know, nor care, that the Church has been doing all of this for quite some time now, and that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI deserves a lot of the credit for the accountability and reform effort (outlined in some detail on Monday by Joan Desmond in this piece for the National Catholic Register).

Also, “Spotlight” was made by imperfect human beings and may have not been entirely fair to one man depicted in the film, who’s claimed he never said words that were put into his mouth.

But it’s worth noting, as this article from Crux does, that the Vatican doesn’t consider the film to be anti-Catholic:

The Rev. Hans Zollner, a member of the pope’s special commission on sexual abuse and president of the Center for the Protection of Minors at Gregorian University in Rome, told Vatican Radio there is “great appreciation for the movie” among his fellow clerics who have recommended it to each other.

“These bishops recommended their brothers to see the movie, so it’s a strong invitation to reflect and to take seriously the central message, namely, that the Catholic Church can and must be transparent, fair, and committed to the fight against abuse and so that this never happens again,” he said.

…

L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican’s newspaper, ran two articles on the Academy Awards. In its list of winners, the paper said “Spotlight” is not “anti-Catholic,” but rather, a movie that “has the courage to denounce cases which must be condemned without hesitation.”

Setting all that aside, here are some showbiz things to know about why “Spotlight” won, and the reasons have more to do with the voters and how they voted than a Tinseltown conspiracy to throw more mud on the Church.

Here’s one explanation from The Hollywood Reporter:

Spotlight was a beneficiary of the preferential ballot employed by the Academy and only one other major awards group, the Producers Guild of America. This system is intended to produce a winner that everyone at least likes — a film that might appear at No. 2 or 3 on most ballots — as opposed to one that the largest fraction of people loved but most others did not, like DGA Award winner The Revenant.

The PGA’s employment of this system produced a PGA Award win for The Big Short, which, for a time, put that dramedy in the pole position for the Oscar in the view of most pundits. But there was a difference that many of us failed to account for: The PGA is comprised of producers, whereas the largest branch of the Academy is comprised of actors, whose clear preference was Spotlight, as evidenced by the SAG Awards. Pundits should be forgiven, though: On the four other occasions in which the top three guilds each picked a different winner, the best picture Oscar twice went to the PGA’s pick and twice to the DGA’s pick, but never to SAG’s pick — until Sunday.

“Spotlight” had some other things going for it. It’s an ensemble cast; it employed people who were more working actors than big movie stars; and it was dialogue-heavy, as opposed to action-heavy. All of these things appeal to other actors, who make up the largest voting bloc in the Motion Picture Academy.

Critics might have preferred outdoor action drama “The Revenant” and its big star turn for Leonardo DiCaprio (who finally took home his long-awaited Best Actor Oscar), but it evidently didn’t appeal as much to actors.

The IndieWire blog also made a good point:

Oscar voters also often like a subject that makes them feel good for voting about it, and “Spotlight” tackles an important one. Whereas “Room” might have felt too bleak for some voters, for instance, McCarthy’s film has the right amount of uplift at the end, showing a shocking conspiracy but ultimately seeing it bested, and demonstrating the change that came from it.

Like “Schindler’s List” or “12 Years A Slave,” which also grapple with difficult subject matter, they’re also stories of hope amidst inhumanity, and that plays well with voters. And thus, the quiet triumph of “Spotlight” resonated more than the revenge driven narrative of “The Revenant” (however much its filmmakers talk about climate change and highlighting indigenous peoples, they felt attached to the story rather than inherently part of it), or the more ambivalent conclusion of “The Big Short,” which ends with the corrupt institution essentially prevailing, and our “heroes” getting very rich off the misery of others.

The Los Angeles Times’ Kenneth Turan, in his Oscar rundown, shared an enlightening email exchange:

Moments after Morgan Freeman announced “Spotlight’s” win, an academy member friend who shared my belief in the film sent me the following brief email:

“We were right about ‘Spotlight.’

“Emotion usually wins best pic.”

On this Super Tuesday presidential primary day, it’s useful to remember something that political pundits and operatives often forget: They don’t determine the winner; the voters do.

And on Sunday, the Oscar voters spoke.

Image: Courtesy Open Road Films

Don’t miss a thing: head over to my other homes at CatholicVote and the Faith & Family Media blog, and like my Facebook page; also like the Patheos Catholic FB page to see what my colleagues have to say.

Previous Post

February 22, 2016

TCM and Sister Rose Pacatte Examine 'Movies Condemned by the Catholic Church'

Next Post

March 6, 2016 'Damien' Premieres Monday on A&E, Asking Serious Questions About Good, Evil and Faith

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category books breaking news digital media Faith practice food interview jane the virgin media movies music NFL Pope Francis Showbiz 101 social media sports technology television Uncategorized video

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz