Open Road is one of the big indies that is in this Oscar race something fierce, showing its bigger cousins a thing or two about Oscar campaigning.

Spotlight

Stars: Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Liev Schreiber, John Slattery, Stanley Tucci, Brian d’Arcy James, Billy Crudup, Rachel McAdams
Director: Tom McCarthy
Premise: From IMDb: “The true story of how the Boston Globe uncovered the massive scandal of child molestation and cover-up within the local Catholic Archdiocese, shaking the entire Catholic Church to its core.”
Oscar Chances: Strong: After its festival premier, Spotlight leaped into the competition big time and has been angling for several nominations ever since. While, it’s sure to make appearances in several major categories, recent issues have arisen that suggest the large male ensemble, being campaigned together in Supporting Actor, may be cancelling each other out. Considering how many films in the past have earned double nominations in the supporting categories, this seems a bit panicky, but either Michael Keaton or Mark Ruffalo need to start picking up more citations if they want to thrive.
Campaign-Proposed Categories:

• Best Picture (Michael Sugar, Steve Golin, Nicole Rocklin, Blye Pagon Faust)
• Best Director (Tom McCarthy)
• Best Original Screenplay (Josh Singer, Tom McCarthy)
• Best Supporting Actor (Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Liev Schreiber, John Slattery, Stanley Tucci, Brian d’Arcy James, Billy Crudup)
• Best Supporting Actress (Rachel McAdams)
• Best Cinematography (Masanobu Takayanagi)
• Best Film Editing (Tom McArdle)
• Best Sound Mixing (Glen Gauthier)
• Best Sound Editing (Paul Hsu)
• Best Original Score (Howard Shore)
• Best Production Design (Stephen Carter, Shane Vieau)
• Best Costume Design (Wendy Chuck)
• Best Makeup & Hairstyling (Jordan Samuel, Karola Dirnberger)

Rotten Tomatoes:
98% (168 critics; as of 12/10/15)
Metacritic:
93 out of 100 (44 critics; as of 12/10/15)