Conclave (film)

Conclave is a 2024 political thriller film directed by Edward Berger and written by Peter Straughan, based on the 2016 novel by Robert Harris. The film stars Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, Sergio Castellitto, and Isabella Rossellini. In the film, Cardinal Thomas Lawrence (Fiennes) organises a conclave to elect the next pope and finds himself investigating secrets and scandals about the major candidates.
After premiering at the 51st Telluride Film Festival on August 30, 2024, Conclave was released in theaters in the United States by Focus Features on October 25 and in the United Kingdom by Black Bear UK on November 29. The film received positive reviews from critics, who praised the performances, directing, screenplay, and cinematography. The film has grossed $113.3 million worldwide on a $20 million production budget.
Conclave was named one of the top ten films of 2024 by the National Board of Review and the American Film Institute. Among other accolades, it won four awards at the 78th British Academy Film Awards (tying The Brutalist for most of the ceremony), including Best Film, and also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. At the 97th Academy Awards, it received eight nominations, including Best Picture, and won Best Adapted Screenplay.
After the pope dies of a heart attack, the College of Cardinals, under the leadership of its dean, Thomas Lawrence of the United Kingdom, convenes to elect his successor. The four leading candidates are Aldo Bellini of the United States, a progressive; Joshua Adeyemi of Nigeria, a social conservative; Joseph Tremblay of Canada, a moderate; and Goffredo Tedesco of Italy, a staunch traditionalist.
Archbishop Janusz Woźniak, the prefect of the papal household, tells Lawrence that the pope demanded Tremblay's resignation before dying, which Tremblay denies, while Bellini tells supporters that his goal is to prevent Tedesco from winning the papacy. Meanwhile, Lawrence is surprised by the last-minute arrival of Archbishop Vincent Benitez of Kabul, whom the pope named cardinal in pectore the previous year.
Lawrence opens the deliberations with a homily encouraging the college to embrace uncertainty, which some misinterpret as a declaration of his papal ambitions. No one obtains the two-thirds majority needed to win, though Adeyemi commands a lead over Tedesco while Bellini and Lawrence split the progressive vote. Monsignor Raymond O'Malley, Lawrence's assistant and opposition researcher, discovers the pope paid for Benitez to be flown to Geneva for a canceled medical appointment.
On the second day, while breaking for lunch, the college witnesses a confrontation between Adeyemi and Sister Shanumi, a nun recently transferred to Rome from Nigeria. Lawrence speaks with Shanumi, who confesses to an illicit relationship that led to the birth of a son. Adeyemi further confirms the story when pressed. Though Lawrence is bound to secrecy, a whisper campaign derails Adeyemi's candidacy. Bellini reluctantly decides to back Tremblay.
Working with Sister Agnes, the nun acting as head caterer and housekeeper, Lawrence discovers that Tremblay arranged for Shanumi's transfer. When confronted, Tremblay claims he did so at the pope's request. Lawrence then breaks into the pope's sealed apartment and finds documents indicating Tremblay paid cardinals for votes. He shows the documents to Bellini, whose plea not to reveal their existence sparks an argument.
On the third day, after revealing Tremblay's actions, Lawrence reconciles with Bellini and agrees to stand against Tedesco. He votes for himself during the sixth ballot, which is interrupted by an explosion that knocks him to the floor and damages the Sistine Chapel. The college learns that the explosion was one of a series of suicide bombings currently taking place throughout Europe. While Tedesco calls for a religious war against Islam, Benitez argues against meeting violence with violence and chastises everyone for choosing political agendas over their religious mission. During the seventh ballot, as light shines through a broken window, the college overwhelmingly elects Benitez, who chooses the papal name of "Innocent".
Lawrence is initially enthused until O'Malley pulls him aside to discuss Benitez's canceled medical appointment. Benitez, when confronted by Lawrence, reveals he was born with a uterus and ovaries but remained unaware of their existence until an appendectomy revealed them. The appointment was for a laparoscopic hysterectomy that he decided against because he believed he should remain as God made him. Lawrence wanders the grounds, listening to the crowd cheer Pope Innocent's election, before going to his room, opening the window, and observing a trio of young nuns chattering in the courtyard below.
It was announced in May 2022 that Ralph Fiennes, John Lithgow, Stanley Tucci, and Isabella Rossellini were set to star in the film, with Edward Berger directing. Additional casting was announced in January 2023 as production began in Rome. Filming also took place at Cinecittà. Filming concluded in March.
The set designers took great care to replicate the Sistine Chapel, though they took some artistic license with the Domus Sanctae Marthae. They made their set more prison-like to enhance dramatic tension because they felt that the real version was rather dull. Costume designers visited Gammarelli, Tirelli Costumi, and several museums in Rome as part of their research. For the cardinals' red attire, costume designer Lisy Christl opted for a hue used in 17th-century cardinal vestments, rather than the scarlet one from modern-day ones, believing it be "far more beautiful and far easier for our eyes".
While writing the screenplay, Peter Straughan said that he met with a cardinal to discuss the logistics of the conclave. He also took a private tour of the Vatican, and said he did not feel hostility while there and felt that the Vatican had been open to him.
German composer Volker Bertelmann composed the score to Conclave, his fifth collaboration with Berger. In an interview with IndieWire, Bertelmann discussed developing a sound that was neither "too ecclesiastical [nor] classical", leading to experimentation with lesser-known instruments. As a result, much of the score makes use of the Cristal Baschet, a crystallophone played using wet hands. A similar approach was used for Bertelmann's score for Berger's All Quiet on the Western Front (2022), where a harmonium was used.
Due to many characters sharing scenes in the film, Bertelmann chose to create themes for specific situations as opposed to themes for individual characters. In addition, he had string players use a ricochet bowing technique. In order to mirror the film's conflicting factions within the cardinals, Bertelmann sometimes incorporated polyrhythms, such as triplets against sixteenth notes.
In August 2022, Black Bear Pictures' newly founded British distribution arm acquired U.K. distribution rights to the film from FilmNation Entertainment, serving as one of its first acquisitions and maiden releases in the United Kingdom; Black Bear's company Elevation Pictures also serves as Canadian distributor. Steven Rales served as one of the executive producers, co-financing the film via his production company, Indian Paintbrush.
In November 2023, Focus Features acquired U.S. distribution rights to the film. In July 2024, Conclave was announced as part of the Special Presentations section for the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival scheduled for 8 September 2024. The film would subsequently be announced as part of the lineup for the Telluride Film Festival, where it had its world premiere. Venice Film Festival director Alberto Barbera explained why the film did not play at Venice: "I didn't think it was a Competition film for Venice but I invited it Out of Competition. We tried to figure out timing for it to play here and at Telluride, which they also wanted, but we couldn't find the right dates and timing for it to work. We discussed various options but couldn't get the time that suited everyone. It's a shame."
The film was released in the United States on 25 October 2024. It was previously scheduled for a limited theatrical release on 1 November before opening wide on the following week. It was released in the United Kingdom on 29 November.
As of March 29, 2025, Conclave has grossed $32.6 million in the United States and Canada, and $80.7 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $113.3 million.
In the United States and Canada, Conclave was released alongside Venom: The Last Dance, and was projected to gross $4–6 million from 1,753 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $2.5 million on its first day, including $500,000 from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $6.6 million, finishing in third. The film is aimed at significantly older audiences. 77% of viewers were over 35 years old, with the largest demographic group being those over 55 at 44%, and 67% identifying as Caucasian. The film then made $5 million in its second weekend (dropping 23.7%) and $4.1 million in its third weekend (dropping just 18.1%), finishing in fourth and sixth place, respectively.
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 93% of 318 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.1/10. The website's consensus reads: "Carrying off papal pulp with immaculate execution and career-highlight work from Ralph Fiennes, Conclave is a godsend for audiences who crave intelligent entertainment." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 79 out of 100, based on 54 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale, while those surveyed by PostTrak gave it an 84% overall positive score, with 62% saying they would "definitely recommend" it.
The film's cinematography and ensemble cast were widely praised; however, some criticism was met for the plot, with Katie Walsh of the Los Angeles Times calling it "a pretty thin and silly mystery ... that seems like it's deeper than it actually is". IndieWire's David Ehrlich agreed that the film was "very silly but wonderfully staged ... even if the film might be a bit too convinced of its own dramatic import". The Chicago Tribune's Michael Phillips praised the film's "delicious portraits in pursuit, deceit and evasion".
Mark Kermode praised the film for what he saw as a thoughtful and respectful portrayal of the papal election process. He highlighted the strong performances, particularly by Fiennes, and said that the film created suspense and intrigue without resorting to sensationalism. He also noted the nuanced exploration of the Catholic Church's future and its internal politics, which he found compelling and well-executed. Richard Lawson of Vanity Fair said that the film rightly portrayed "both the seriousness of [the conclave] process and the campy ridiculousness of it", and thought that the film "touch[es] fingers with prestige greatness while keeping its feet firmly planted in the realm of rollicking entertainment". Manohla Dargis of The New York Times noted that the film's stance towards the Roman Catholic Church mirrors Hollywood's own stance towards its film industry: "lightly cynical, self-flattering and finally myth-stoking".
Lawson called the final twist "reckless" and insufficiently thought through, while Variety's Peter Debruge called it "one of the most satisfying twists in years, a Hail Mary that both surprises and restores one's faith (maybe not everyone's, but certainly that of the disillusioned)". Otosirieze Obi-Young, writing for Nigerian magazine Open Country Mag, argued that the portrayal of Adeyemi is problematic for playing into stereotypes of black men being sexually aggressive, and that "Sexual abuse ... has become, in the last few decades, the defining moral damage of Western Catholicism, yet the ahistorical vision of Conclave pins that responsibility not on a cardinal from any of those Western countries but on its sole black African papabile."
Filmmaker Alexander Payne named it one of his favorite films of 2024, saying: "You just can't believe how riveting it is – funny and suspenseful and so well-cast and well-acted. Berger has the miraculous quality of making something you never forget is a movie, but at the same time, it's as though you're actually there." Other filmmakers, including Oliver Stone, Kelly Fremon Craig, Adam Elliot, Coralie Fargeat, Tim Fehlbaum, Hannah Fidell, William Goldenberg, Reinaldo Marcus Green, Savanah Leaf, Laurel Parmet, Paul Schrader and Denis Villeneuve, also lauded the film, particularly the performances of the cast.
The progressive National Catholic Reporter praised Conclave, calling it "a compelling and ecclesial call for a renewed spiritual stewardship characterized by humility, meekness, and, curiously, doubt". Kate Lucky of Christianity Today, an evangelical publication, called the film "gorgeous" and "riveting", and said that "though the film subtly advances progressive convictions, it gives cardinals of all ideological persuasions equal opportunity to fall short". Writing for the Catholic Herald, Miles Pattenden considered that the film "lacks the subtlety to explore [Church politics] inventively" despite some "exquisite moments", notably the performances of Sergio Castellitto and Rossellini. He also criticised its "lack of historical awareness", noting that questions concerning voting eligibility at conclaves and intersex clergy were "nothing new to the Church".
John Mulderig of the Catholic OSV News said about Conclave that "rival viewpoints within the church are caricatured with a broad brush ... and the deck is predictably stacked in favor of those who advocate change". He warned that "all moviegoers committed to the church's creeds will want to approach this earnest, visually engaging but manipulative—and sometimes sensationalist—production with caution". The Archdiocese of Los Angeles' Angelus magazine praised several of the actors' performances but ultimately dismissed the film, writing: "The problem here is not that it is full of bias against the Catholic Church. The problem is that it is just plain bad. ... At the crucial moment, [Benitez] gives a speech so full of platitudes it could have been written by ChatGPT."
The Bishop of Winona–Rochester, Robert Barron, dismissed it as Oscar bait and termed it "a film about the Catholic Church that could have been written by the editorial board of The New York Times". Sean Fitzpatrick of The Catholic World Report agreed with Barron's criticisms, while also criticizing the writing of Benitez's intersex status, opining that the statement "I am what God made me" is a common yet flawed argument.
Following the film's release, several outlets noted the film's presence on social media and within meme culture. Memes comparing the film to RuPaul's Drag Race and The Real Housewives appeared on Twitter, while other users created fan cams, including ones set to pop musicians such as Charli XCX. Online comparisons were also made to media such as Mean Girls, while the "elimination" of the various papal candidates was compared to reality television shows like Survivor or The Bachelor. Also noted were memes comparing the characters in the film to real life figures such as Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, the two major candidates in the 2024 United States presidential election, which took place days after the film's U.S. release. Many of these outlets took note of the apparent contradiction that a film that "might be [for] retired folks catching a weekday matinee" was popular in meme culture.
In late February 2025, the 88-year-old Pope Francis became very ill and was hospitalized. Philiana Ng of TheWrap observed, "The cast of Conclave celebrated their ensemble win at the Screen Actors Guild Awards[,] but acknowledged the real-life parallels to the movie – which chronicles the secret process of electing a pope – amid Pope Francis' current health crisis. 'We are very, very worried for our pope', Isabella Rossellini told reporters[;] '[w]e love this pope – Papa Francesco, Pope Francis. We wish him well. We wish him to recover.' "