UNITED STATES
Entertainment Weekly

[with video]

BY DEVAN COGGAN • @DEVANCOGGAN

Way back in September, the biggest headlines out of the Toronto International Film Festival were devoted to one movie: Spotlight. Tom McCarthy’s drama, which chronicles the Boston Globe’s investigation into sex abuse allegations in the Catholic Church, was labeled awards season gold — and it was even hailed as a worthy successor to All The President’s Men.

But that was September, and since then, the film’s Oscar chances, which had once felt like a lock, suddenly seemed… iffy. The film’s talented ensemble — Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, John Slattery, Brian d’Arcy Jones, Stanley Tucci — meant that there was no one star to build on Oscar campaign around, and as stories of Leonardo DiCaprio eating bison liver began to dominate the year-end pre-nomination buzz, some were wondering whether Spotlight peaked too early. Such fears…