UNITED STATES
American Film Institute

February 19, 2016

Before Michael Rezendes won a Pulitzer Prize for journalism, he was a Screenwriting alumnus of the AFI Conservatory (Class of 1999). Played by Mark Ruffalo in the Oscar®-nominated SPOTLIGHT, he’s one of a group of Boston Globe reporters who, in 2002, exposed a shattering clergy sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church. Known collectively as the Spotlight team, they won a Pulitzer Prize for their work. Now, nearly 15 years later, the story has gained international attention once again with the film directed by Tom McCarthy and written by Josh Singer.

AFI spoke with Rezendes about his AFI Conservatory experience, and the making of SPOTLIGHT.

You graduated from AFI Conservatory in 1999, not long before the Spotlight story that inspired the film broke in 2002. How did you transition out of screenwriting and into journalism?

I was on a leave of…