Spotlight in Boston: Where the Oscar Favorite Was Filmed

MASSACHUSETTS
Curbed

BY TOM ACITELLI @TOMACITELLI FEB 27, 2016

Spotlight is poised to collect several Academy Awards on Sunday night. The movie depicts the Boston Globe’s 2001-2002 investigation into the Catholic child-abuse scandal in an admirably forthright and unsentimental way (we think). Most of the movie was shot in Toronto, with only about four days of filming in Boston. Therefore, the local flavor in the movie is of the exterior kind: outsides of buildings, skyline panoramas, street sweeps of the South End and Charlestown, one character waiting for the Red Line. Still, such shots layer the movie with an authenticity that makes it that much more engrossing. Here are 10 Boston sites that made the cut.

1 Fenway Park
The ballpark provided the backdrop for an early scene wherein Globe editors and reporters realize the possible extent of what they’re about to uncover. Real-life Spotlight reporter Mike Renzendes can be seen a few rows behind the actors, including Mark Ruffalo, who plays Rezendes.

2 South End Buttery
The cafe is used as a backdrop for a scene of a meeting between Rachel McAdams, who plays reporter Sacha Pfeiffer, and a victim-survivor. The actual South End Buttery did not open until 2005, while the depicted meeting took place in 2001.

3 Union Park
The South End park served as a backdrop for another scene between Pfeiffer/McAdams and the victim-survivor.

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