‘Conclave’ Oscar campaign goes too far as Pope Francis’ possible successors list is revealed

Pope Francis leaving the Earthly realm has become a real possibility in the last five days after he was admitted to hospital with severe Bronchitis, prompting the Vatican to start considering its options. For those who prefer to pray to the church of Lumière instead, however, the whole thing sounds more like a complex ploy or divine intervention to get Conclave that Best Picture Oscar next week.

Conclave is a strong contender for this awards season’s most meme-d movie. From the vape-hitting Cardinal to its overall Mean Girls energy, the film about the election of a new Pope accidentally became a favorite among Gen Z audiences. But, with recent developments, its campaign has tapped into the zeitgeist at arguably unprecedented levels.

First, there were the controversies hitting the other front-runners every other day. A.I. accusations for The Brutalist, intimacy coordinator issues for Anora, old racist tweets for the star of Emilia Pérez (because its director’s dubious politics weren’t enough)… It resembles the twists, turns, handshakes, and backstabs of Edward Berger’s film a little too closely.

*Conclave spoilers* state of the race
byu/Impossible_Map364 inoscarrace

And it seems to be working. Anora bounced back last minute and clinched possibly game-changing wins at the Producers, Directors, and Writers Guilds Awards (only one film has lost Best Picture at the Oscars after securing those three precursors — Brokeback Mountain). However, Conclave managed the showier win at the BAFTAs on Feb. 16, just three days before the Academy Awards polls closed. Around that time, Pope Francis checked into the hospital. And the list of his possible successors is eerily similar to Conclave‘s star-studded, scarlet-cassock-donning, chain-smoking ensemble.

Anyways, as the most devout Conclave observers pointed out, the book on which the film is based concludes with a Filipino cardinal becoming Pope. In real life, the favorite to succeed the Holy Father is Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, known as the “Asian Pope Francis.” One fan even suggested Berger and screenwriter Peter Straughan changed the character’s nationality to Mexican “because they fear Tagle’s power.”

Still, that’s not where the crossover between fiction and reality ceases. As another X user describes, The Mirror‘s list of papal hopefuls, just like Conclave, contains, “an African who hates gay people, a vaguely leftist Filipino, an Italian diplomat, [and] a weirdo uber-conservative.” That’s Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, Tagle, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and Cardinal Peter Erdo, in that order.

Robert Harris’ 2016 novel isn’t officially based on the real members of the highest rank of the Catholic Church, but it was published three years after Pope Francis’ appointment and imagines the aftermath of the death of a reformist, progressive pontiff.

It’s not a huge stretch to speculate that the author drew from the real-life players named above to build his cast of scheming cardinals. However, what Harris surely didn’t imagine was that the movie based on his book would be dramatically close to winning the industry’s biggest award at the same time as its plot came to life. Of course, neither has happened yet — but what if both do? That will be an Oscar night to remember. And pretty creepy, too.

The 97th Academy Awards air Sunday, Mar. 2, at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT, on ABC and Hulu. You can read We Got This Covered’s review of Conclave here.