Eleven different movies received first-place votes in this category this year, illustrating the depth of cinema in 2015. As we’ve seen throughout the awards season, two movies are dominant in this arena. They beat all other contenders easily, although these top two were separated by only three points.

After a hard-fought battle that went down to the final vote, Spotlight wins the Calvin Award for Best Cast. It received three first place votes and was a top three selection on 50 percent of our ballots. Spotlight is one of the true examples of an ensemble piece, with the key players being the reporters/editors from the Boston Globe, along with attorneys and witnesses that they encounter during their investigation of the Catholic church’s cover up of childhood sex abuse by Roman Catholic priests.

The key performances here come from Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton and Rachel McAdams, all of whom portray members of the Globe’s “Spotlight” team, an investigative unit that takes months of research to explore and report significant stories. Ruffalo’s conflict with his own experience with Catholicism is critical to the film, as is Keaton’s struggle with his own feelings of responsibility for the story not being covered in a more timely manner. McAdams is the surrogate for the viewer, reacting to the horror of the victims’ stories.

Other critical performers in the film include Liev Schreiber, who plays a new editor whose arrival at the Globe creates some upheaval. Ultimately, it is his drive that brings the story to fruition. John Slattery is Ben Bradlee Jr., who provides the skepticism and doubt that drives the Spotlight team to dig even deeper. And the always-fantastic Stanley Tucci is attorney Mitchell Garabedian, the man who is representing the victims and looks out for their best interests, which are sometimes in conflict with the investigation. All of these players in Spotlight are critical to the composition and success of the film, along with the tertiary actors who also turn in admirable performances.

Our very, very close second place film is The Big Short, which had a fantastic six first place votes, but just didn’t have quite the same level of support as Spotlight across the board. Like Spotlight, though, The Big Short is another film that is driven by its eclectic cast rather than single performances. Christian Bale is probably the closest thing the film has to a lead actor, although some of our voters would argue that Steve Carell qualifies as well.

Either way, Bale is terrific as he plays against type as a quirky hedge fund manager who uncovers the patterns that lead to him predicting the housing market will collapse. Carell is also a hedge fund manager, one who is tortured by guilt over events in his past and also suffers consistent remorse over the fact that if he wins by shorting the credit default market, he is doing so at the cost of extreme strife for humanity.

Other fantastic cast members include Ryan Gosling, confident and cheesy, John Magaro and Finn Wittrock as young investors who stumble upon the impending crisis and short accordingly, and Brad Pitt as a reclusive trader who puts his money behind these young men. The Big Short also features stellar supporting performances from Hamish Linklater, Rafe Spall and Jeremy Strong. Ordinarily, it’d be odd to credit people for playing themselves, but Margot Robbie, Selena Gomez and Anthony Bourdain all add to the film with exaggerated portraits of their real-life personas. This is one of those times when it’s really true that you have to see it to understand.

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