General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20268 min read

Conclave (2024 film)

Conclave is a 2024 political thriller film directed by Edward Berger and written by Peter Straughan, adapted from Robert Harris's 2016 novel of the same name, in which Cardinal Thomas Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) presides over the papal conclave held to elect a new pope after the pontiff's unexpected death, and uncovers secrets that could shake the foundations of the Church¹. The cast also includes Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, Isabella Rossellini, Carlos Diehz, Sergio Castellitto, and Lucian Msamati². The film premiered at the Telluride Film Festival in 2024 and opened in cinemas on October 25, 2024 through Focus Features³.

Key fact	Detail
Director / writer	Edward Berger; screenplay by Peter Straughan, adapted from Robert Harris's 2016 novel¹
Lead cast	Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, Isabella Rossellini, Carlos Diehz, Sergio Castellitto, Lucian Msamati²
Release	Telluride premiere 2024; US theatrical release October 25, 2024 (Focus Features)³
Running time	120 minutes; rated PG in the US for thematic material and smoking²
Box office	$32,580,655 domestic and $103,100,103 worldwide against a $20,000,000 production budget⁴
Academy Awards	Eight nominations including Best Picture; won Best Adapted Screenplay at the 97th Academy Awards³
BAFTAs	Twelve nominations; won Best Film, Outstanding British Film, Adapted Screenplay, and Editing⁵

Spoilers

Plot and characters

After the death of a beloved, reformist pope, Cardinal Thomas Lawrence, dean of the College of Cardinals, is tasked with convening and running the secret ritual that will name a new pontiff¹. The cardinals are sequestered inside the Sistine Chapel and the living quarters of the Domus Sanctae Marthae to avoid outside influence, and the race has several frontrunners: the progressive Secretary of State Aldo Bellini (Stanley Tucci), the reactionary Patriarch of Venice Goffredo Tedesco (Sergio Castellitto), the centrist Canadian Joseph Tremblay (John Lithgow), and the conservative Nigerian Cardinal Joshua Adeyemi (Lucian Msamati), who stands to make history as the first Black pope⁶.

As scandals eliminate candidates and others rise and fall in the rankings, Lawrence uncovers a trail of secrets left by the dead pope¹. A latecomer, Cardinal Vincent Benitez (Carlos Diehz), an archbishop from Kabul, arrives with paperwork declaring that the late pope had made him a cardinal in pectore, meaning "in secret"⁷. After a speech condemning hate and extolling the necessity of progress, Benitez unexpectedly wins the election⁶.

Adaptation

The film is a close adaptation. Screenwriter Peter Straughan, previously nominated for an Academy Award for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, said he remained very faithful to the novel because it was written in a precise, controlled manner that "worked well as a thriller plot"³. Harris himself called it probably the closest, most faithful adaptation of any of his books to reach the screen⁸. Minor character tweaks were made; Lawrence is British in the film rather than Italian as in the book, a change made after Berger struggled to find an Italian actor who could carry the role⁶^•⁹. Harris was inspired by the 2005 conclave that elected Pope Benedict XVI, and described the papal election as "the ultimate election, for God's representative on Earth, the spiritual leader of one and a third billion people"¹⁰.

Production

Filming in Rome. The film was shot entirely in Italy in 2023, on location in Rome and at Cinecittà Studios, where Fremantle's Italian subsidiary Wildside served as service producer³. Because the Vatican does not allow filming at the Sistine Chapel or the Casa Santa Marta, production designer Suzie Davies built replicas at Cinecittà, including the chapel, a Casa Santa Marta corridor, and cardinals' quarters; the 40-day shoot was split roughly evenly between locations around Rome and the studio sets¹¹^•¹². The composer was Volker Bertelmann, Berger's collaborator on All Quiet on the Western Front, who used unconventional instruments to evoke an ethereal quality¹³.

The project predated Berger's Oscar-winning All Quiet on the Western Front: producers Tessa Ross and Juliette Howell of House Productions optioned Harris's book after reading the first three chapters and commissioned Straughan, with Access Entertainment helping finance development⁵. Berger began developing the adaptation with Ross and Straughan around six years before release⁹.

Accuracy

The film's release coincided with real Vatican events, and after the death of Pope Francis in April 2025 it drew wide attention as a primer on the actual election process⁷. Vatican experts judged it largely faithful. William Cavanaugh, a Catholic studies professor at DePaul University, said the film tried to reproduce the mise-en-scène of the Vatican accurately and showed that much of the drama happens in pre-conclave conversations among cardinals⁷. Kathleen Sprows Cummings told PBS the movie "got so much right" and was "meticulously researched," citing the clothing, the conclave procedure, the burning of ballots, and the idea that a single speech could sway the vote¹⁴.

The balloting is depicted accurately: electors vote by secret ballot into a chalice, four rounds per day are held until a candidate wins a two-thirds majority, and ballots are burned after every two rounds, with black smoke signaling no election and white smoke a new pope¹⁵. The film's three-day conclave matches recent history; conclaves in the last century have been short, and none has lasted longer than a week since 1831⁷^•¹⁵.

Identified errors. The Rev. Thomas Reese, a Jesuit priest and senior analyst at Religion News Service, called the admission of a cardinal in pectore into the conclave the film's biggest mistake: if the pope never announced the name publicly before the College of Cardinals, that cardinal has no right to attend⁷. Reese also noted that the dean's breaking of the seal of the confessional would be a mortal sin carrying automatic excommunication, and that a cardinal paying for votes, as shown in the film, is unheard of in modern times⁷. Kurt Martens, professor of canon law at the Catholic University of America, objected to the film's framing of cardinals as liberal or conservative champions, noting that the two-thirds majority rule makes it unlikely that an extreme candidate could win⁷. The in pectore procedure itself does exist in canon law, and the Apostolic Constitution governing conclaves explicitly prohibits simony, the buying of hierarchical positions, under pain of excommunication¹⁶.

Reception and awards

The film was one of the best-reviewed releases of 2024 and an awards-season fixture¹⁷. It received eight Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, and won Best Adapted Screenplay at the 97th Academy Awards, where Straughan thanked Harris from the stage³. At the BAFTAs it took four awards from twelve nominations: Best Film, Outstanding British Film, Adapted Screenplay, and Editing⁵. Its screenplay had earlier won at the Golden Globes, the Critics Choice Awards, and the USC Scripter Awards³. Berger was not nominated for Best Director¹⁸.

Criticism came from some Catholic commentators, who objected to the twist ending and the film's ideological framing of the cardinals¹⁹. The Vatican press was more favorable: both L'Osservatore Romano and Avvenire, the Italian bishops' conference daily, gave the film rave reviews, with Avvenire praising its beauty, plot twists, and commentary on the current state of the Church²⁰.

Box office

Against a $20 million production budget, the film grossed $32,580,655 domestically and $70,519,448 internationally for a worldwide total of $103,100,103, with the domestic share at 31.6 percent and legs of 4.93 times its biggest weekend⁴. It earned about $9.4 million in the United Kingdom and Ireland for Black Bear⁵. In Spain, where it opened on December 2, 2024 through DeA Planeta, it sold 1,034,745 tickets for €7,192,099.54, and it was later nominated for the 2026 Goya Award for Best European Film²¹. The Associated Press cited it among the smart thrillers that audiences turned out for in a turbulent 2024 box office year²². Home release followed quickly: digital on November 26, 2024, Blu-ray and DVD on December 17, 2024, and 4K Ultra HD on February 11, 2025²³.

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026