8 Interesting Facts About 'CONCLAVE', a Film with 8 Nominations at the 2025 Oscars!

CONCLAVE is a political thriller novel by Robert Harris published in 2016. The story follows the intrigue behind the election of a new pope after the death of the Catholic Church leader, which was then adapted into a film by writer Peter Straughan & director Edward Berger.

In the novel, the character played by Ralph Fiennes is named Cardinal Lobeli, not Cardinal Lawrence.

At the 97th Academy Awards, CONCLAVE received 8 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. Other nominations include Best Actor for Ralph Fiennes, Best Supporting Actress for Isabella Rossellini, and Best Adapted Screenplay by Peter Straughan. Additionally, the film was also nominated in the categories of Best Production Design, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, and Best Original Score.

Actress Isabella Rossellini has just received her first Oscar nomination for her role as Sister Agnes in this film, after having a career in acting since the 1970s.

Ralph Fiennes has achieved his third Best Actor nomination at the Oscars. Previously, he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for SCHINDLER'S LIST (1993) and Best Actor for THE ENGLISH PATIENT (1996).

Director Edward Berger achieved success at the Oscars with the film ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (2022) by winning 4 awards.

In scoring this film, Composer Volker Bertelmann did not want traditional music for Conclave because he felt it was too ordinary. So he chose a lesser-known instrument - Cristal Baschet, a crystal instrument played by rubbing wet fingers. Volker also took a similar approach in writing the score for the film ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT by using an instrument called a harmonium.

As this article is written, the film adapted from the book by Robert Harris has won the most awards in the Best Adapted Screenplay category, crafted by Peter Straughan (17 awards) and the Best Ensemble Award (21 awards) outside of the Oscars.