Films echo our complicity - The denial of justice is always toxic

It is not necessary to be a sceptic to dismiss the Oscars as a low-cal smoothie, mixing a marketing love-in and a hiring fair. After all, every industry has self-aggrandising jamborees. The Oscars are no different, even if they wear a couturier-sponsored veil of artistic endeavour. They are about selling product but there often is more. The Oscars have honoured work of questionable merit, but the awards also recognise films that have reach far beyond their setting.

The 2016 winner of the best film accolade, Spotlight, is an example. It focussed on Boston Cardinal Bernard Law who, like his Irish peers, encouraged paedophile priests by transferring them when their preying on children ruffled too many feathers. Law died the Vatican and Pope Francis officiated at his funeral. That scandal was the framework supporting Spotlight, but the role of a free press was its heartbeat.