This gripping dramatization of the events that led to the exposure of the most significant sex abuse scandal to date in the French Catholic church is a departure for prolific writer-director François Ozon, an auteur best known as a playful, virtuosic stylist. Here, Ozon sticks to the facts and to a masterfully understated, sensitive style of filmmaking to tell the story of three men who founded an organization to confront the Archdiocese of Lyon’s decades-long protection of Father Bernard Preynat, a Catholic priest and boy scout leader who had abused them and dozens of other children. But this is neither a film about a manhunt or a courtroom drama: the focus here is on what happens to victims once they speak their truth. As such, it is an important contribution not only to our awareness of the international problem of sexual abuse in the Church, but to the general conversation in the era of #MeToo. After winning the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, By the Grace of God was a tremendous box office success in France, leading to greater recognition of a problem hitherto barely acknowledged by the French Catholic Church