BEST PICTURE OSCAR REVIEW
My Official Thoughts on ‘Conclave’ — Wonderfully To-The-Point
Note: SPOILERS for Conclave.
This Oscars season, I will be reviewing each Best Picture nominee. With my Emilia Pérez review out, here I continue with Edward Berger’s religious-political drama Conclave.
These opinions are my own, but certainly feel free to comment on your thoughts about the film.
Conclave: Summary
The pope dies. Conclave wastes no time in showing this — no long, drawn-out scene of him “crossing over.”
Next comes the conclave, the process of voting for the next pope. The film follows Cardinal Thomas Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes), who leads the conclave. Cardinals from around the world come to Rome for the process.
In the days of voting that follow, Cardinal Lawrence uncovers some suspicious secrets that the pope kept about cardinals who are eligible for the papacy.
There’s dirt on Cardinal Tremblay (John Lithgow), who was one of the last to speak with the pope and who was apparently asked to resign for simony.
Cardinal Adeyemi (Lucian Msamati) secretly had a relationship with the nun Sister Shanumi (Balkissa Maiga) decades ago, which resulted in a child. Sister Shanumi surprisingly appears at the conclave, upsetting Cardinal Adeyemi and causing tensions to grow.
Cardinal Bellini (Stanley Tucci) is a liberal, like the late pope, who wants to ensure that the vote goes towards someone more progressive-thinking in the church and away from the likes of Cardinal Adeyemi and the conservative traditionalist Cardinal Tedesco (Sergio Castellitto).
Finally, there is the mysterious Cardinal Benitez (Carlos Diehz), a Mexican archbishop who has been based in Kabul, Afghanistan. His presence surprises the other cardinals, for the late pope was secretive about him.
Politics. Gossip. Intrigue.
This is Conclave.
My Review
I felt that Berger’s other former Best Picture-nominated feature All Quiet on the Western Front (2022) was well-filmed and well-acted, but otherwise felt cliché and easy —it liked to showcase the kind of “suffering porn” that war films love. Let’s show these young kids cradling the dying soldiers. Let’s see their PTSD melt in. Let’s show body parts in trees. Tears. Anger. Guns.
War is hell, amiright? Please give me something a little more new to digest on.
With that in mind, I greatly appreciated the more mature, intelligent storytelling of Conclave. Nothing feels forced in its tight 2-hour runtime, making it the shortest Best Picture nominee of 2025.
This is a movie centered strongly around its dialogue, and Conclave is smart to know how to present information, and how much information to present. Conclave treats the viewer like an outsider that it is slowly allowing in.
Gorgeously-shot scenes keeping the characters far away in hallways, separate staircases, auditoriums, and the like made me feel like I am cautiously listening in on something I shouldn’t really know. The film didn’t choose to express intimate knowledge between characters with closeups, and it was so much better for it.
Conclave’s writing reminded me of prime-era Game of Thrones as well. Here are characters playing mental games to win power, or not win power. Secrets about leaders get exposed. People conspire on who their vote will go to. Rumors pervade, and conversations don’t reveal whole truths. The film made every conversation feel purposeful and strategic.
It’s for this reason that Conclave is my pick for Best Adapted Screenplay this year. Conclave may seem on the surface like a talk-heavy film, but it’s also in its use of silences — or simply of what’s left unsaid — that strengthens the script.
I was reminded of Women Talking, the Best Adapted Screenplay winner of 2023. Like Conclave, Women Talking centralized on one location, thus giving a succinct “bottle episode” feel to the concept in which a group of characters are working out a problem through a deliberate, intimate meeting.
However, Conclave feels better than Women Talking because I was never sure about what Conclave’s outcome would be — a pope would be chosen by the end, but who? I knew that Women Talking would end with the women leaving the compound — they weren’t going to fight back, and I certainly didn’t expect the film to have them stay. Meanwhile, Conclave asks the right questions to center its conversations around, and it treats the search for a new pope like a journey with knots to untangle.
Through these conversations, Conclave also explores the conflicts of organized religion in the modern day. What is the clash of tradition and progressivism? Who needs to carry out what ideals in the most famous organized religion in the world?
And what does it mean to be a good pope?
Concluding Thoughts
For a film about the upper echelons of Catholicism, there is actually not much religion in Conclave besides the general imagery and the characters’ expressed values.
Conclave takes advantage of the absolutely beautiful nature of its locations. Filmed in Rome at Cinecittà Studios, the scenes of the conclave hall, expansive marble halls, ceiling murals, patterned floors, and deep-colored spaces created the enriching world of the Vatican. Together, Conclave took advantage of its elements to build on its broader themes of politics in religion, and religion in politics.
Conclave is nominated for Actor in a Leading Role (Ralph Fiennes), Actress in a Supporting Role (Isabella Rosellini), Costume Design, Film Editing, Original Score, Production Design, Adapted Screenplay, and Best Picture.
Out of its eight nominations, I only really see it having a chance at one — which I mentioned earlier being Adapted Screenplay. Although, I wouldn’t be surprised if Ralph Fiennes won his first Oscar here — he was excellent. That being said, I found every element of the movie for which it was nominated to be wonderful.
Go see Conclave before March 2. It’s smart, it’s gorgeous, and it’s intriguing.
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