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50 free Spotlight Movie trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Spotlight trivia quiz covers Tom McCarthy's 2015 Best Picture winner about The Boston Globe's investigation into child abuse by Catholic priests. It follows the story from the 1976 police station to the morning the phones start ringing: Marty Baron's arrival, Mitchell Garabedian's reluctant cooperation, Phil Saviano and SNAP, Richard Sipe's 6% estimate, the list of 87 names, the treatment centre near Matt Carroll's home, the unsealed documents tying Cardinal Law to the cover-up, and Robby Robinson's confession about the 1993 list. Behind the scenes it covers the script that sat on the Black List, why McCarthy turned the film down at first, the actor who regretted saying no, the Toronto Sears store dressed as the Globe newsroom, the eight-month edit, and what the film changed from the real investigation. It ends with the 88th Academy Awards, where Spotlight became the first Best Picture winner since 1952 to take home just one other award. Note: this page is about the 2015 film, not the theatre term. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries before publishing.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who directed Spotlight?
Tom McCarthy
He co-wrote it with Josh Singer and won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar.
Q 02Which newspaper's investigative team is the film about?
The Boston Globe
Spotlight is the oldest continuously operating newspaper investigative unit in the US.
Q 03Who plays reporter Michael Rezendes?
Mark Ruffalo
The Guardian's Mark Kermode called his outburst one of the film's few grandstanding showstoppers.
Q 04Who plays Walter 'Robby' Robinson, head of the Spotlight team?
Michael Keaton
The year after Birdman, it put him in back-to-back Best Picture winners.
Q 05Who plays Sacha Pfeiffer?
Rachel McAdams
She was the film's only Best Supporting Actress nominee.
Q 06Who plays incoming Globe editor Marty Baron?
Liev Schreiber
The real Baron went on to edit The Washington Post from 2013 to 2021.
Q 07Who plays attorney Mitchell Garabedian?
Stanley Tucci
Garabedian initially refuses to be interviewed until Rezendes reveals he's on Spotlight.
Q 08Who plays Ben Bradlee Jr.?
John Slattery
The real Bradlee Jr. cameos among the reporters listening to his film counterpart on 9/11.
Q 09Which priest's arrest opens the film in 1976?
John Geoghan
The mother declines to press charges and he is quietly released.
Q 10Which cardinal is accused of knowing about the abuse and doing nothing?
Bernard Law
He resigned in December 2002 and was later given a senior post in Italy.
Q 11Which victims' group does Phil Saviano head?
SNAP
Its full name is Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
Q 12What percentage of priests does psychotherapist Richard Sipe estimate are abusers?
6%
That works out to roughly 90 priests in Boston; the team eventually lists 87.
Q 13Who voices Sipe, uncredited, on the phone?
Richard Jenkins
He and the director had worked together on The Visitor.
Q 14How many priests' names does the team's list eventually contain?
Q 21Where does the epilogue say Cardinal Law ended up?
A basilica in Rome
Festival audiences erupted in laughter at that title card.
Q 22Which Pulitzer Prize did the real Spotlight series win?
2003 Public Service
The Globe has won 27 Pulitzers in total.
Q 23Who plays Matt Carroll?
Brian d'Arcy James
The Broadway veteran was the least famous of the core four.
Q 24Which actor turned down a role because of The Infiltrator, and later regretted it?
87
They start with one priest, widen to thirteen, and keep going.
Q 15What does Matt Carroll discover near his home?
A treatment centre for abusive priests
In real life it was Geoghan himself who lived down the street; the film changed it as too unbelievable.
Q 16Which event forces the team to shelve the investigation temporarily?
The September 11 attacks
The story is finally scheduled for January 2002.
Q 17Which bishop's letter warning Law about Geoghan turns up in court documents?
John Michael D'Arcy
Garabedian tells Rezendes the documents are publicly available.
Q 18What does Robinson confess before the story runs?
He was sent a list of 20 abusive priests in 1993 and buried it
Attorney Eric MacLeish had given him the list before he joined Spotlight.
Q 19Who plays attorney Eric MacLeish?
Billy Crudup
The real MacLeish revealed the 1993 article's existence while being interviewed for the screenplay.
Q 20What happens the morning after the story runs?
The team is flooded with calls from victims
The article included a hotline for victims and a link to the documents.
Bryan Cranston
He'd have joined a cast that won the SAG ensemble award.
Q 25The script appeared on which annual survey of unproduced screenplays in 2013?
The Black List
The two writers finished it in June that year.
Q 26Where was the replica of the old Globe newsroom built?
A former Sears building in Toronto
The 1976 police station scene was shot at a former Toronto police division.
Q 27Which Canadian campus stood in for locations in the film?
McMaster in Hamilton
Filming also took place at Fenway Park and the Boston Public Library.
Q 28How long did editor Tom McArdle say the edit took?
Eight months
Five scenes were cut entirely.
Q 29Where do the real Pfeiffer, Rezendes and Robinson cameo?
In the background of the Fenway Park scene
The film's Fenway scene is where Robinson is pressured by a Catholic friend.
Q 30Which former priest's on-camera confession is depicted earlier than it really happened?
Ronald Paquin
Pfeiffer and Kurkjian said the real confession was far more gradual.