One of the most heavily nominated films ahead of this weekend’s Oscar ceremony, papal elect-em’-up Conclave has emerged as an awards favourite and box-office hit thanks to its entertaining mesh of political intrigue and hot gossip.
“Nothing is more simultaneously ‘dudes rock’ and for the girls and gays than watching aging character actors tell each other “you will NEVER be Pope” for two hours, at times gutting, at times cutting, from thrilling to camp and back again.”
It’s a mix that has also seen Edward Berger’s film develop a passionate fandom, with fanfics, dating sim games, Discords, discourse and zines all part of a thriving congregation.
PopeCrave, a meme account on X which references the celebrity news aggregator Pop Crave, is probably the only source of divine light to shine through the Seventh Circle of Hell Formerly Known as Twitter since it fell firmly into Nazi hands. Susan, an American artist who mostly manages the account, sees the film’s appeal similarly, providing fun and subverting expectations in necessary circumstances.
“There’s the element of timing, at least for the US audiences. It came out pretty much in tangent with a very big election, that was very relevant. But the trailers really portray it as this papal political conspiracy thriller, and some of the people who became part of this fandom went to see it already being familiar with Berger’s work, some were very interested in the Vatican aesthetics, they might already think it’s going to be an amazing film, but they weren’t expecting the humour, the moments of brevity but also the drama queen of it all. As soon as I saw it the first time, I was online looking for memes, and already people were doing animatics and RuPaul’s Drag Race edits, just to recruit people to go see this film”.
The Conclave super fan has a background in film, but the hyperfixation for this one film has been enough that they’ve almost contemplated flying out to the Vatican if circumstances required it. PopeCrave already has an international element though. When the account shared pictures of the film’s star Ralph Fiennes on the red carpet at the Light House Cinema, his new film The Return having been the Opening Gala at the Dublin International Film Festival, it prompted excited speculation that PopeCrave might be another Ayo Edebiri, a secret Irish darling. As it turns out Alice, one of the members of the PopeCrave group, is Irish. A student from Dublin, they emerged post screening to notifications blowing up on their phone.
“I’m just a fan of Ralph Fiennes in general, and my brother is very into film, so we just went as a casual thing. I thought it would be nice to share a few photos, but then I was sequestered for the duration of the film, and there’s no signal downstairs at the Light House, so when I turned my phone back on there was this unexpected, intense reaction, it was quite funny.”
This year’s Oscars don’t quite have the prominent Irish representation of recent years, but within the Conclave cast we can claim expat Brian F. O’Byrne, an unsung MVP as Fiennes’ loyal right hand man, whose dramatic pauses dishing dirt are more evocative than some actors manage in an entire career of line readings. A seamless part of the ensemble, like many viewers Alice only became familiar with O’Byrne after enjoying his performance.
“I actually didn’t realise he was Irish until after the film, he maybe downplays his accent a little bit. I wasn’t familiar with his work before, but he’s a very entertaining part of the film and a key aspect of the ensemble cast. He’s comic relief but he also plays a very important role plot wise, he goes beyond just comedy.”
Alice joined the PopeCrave Discord after the publication of their zine, From The Crooked Timber of Humanity. With it raising X for various causes and with Alice also being an artist, they’re keen to get involved in their next collab, but it’s the fun and supportive environment of the fandom that is most appealing for them.
“This fan world has been the most openly interactive that I’ve ever seen. I was looking up Conclave online after I saw it to see how people were reacting to it and I came across the zine which I think at that point had raised. I’m going to say 10,000 dollars, which is no mean feat. I found the group chat link from that and decided to join, it’s all skyrocketed since then and it’s an amazing thing really, the funds being raised for charity, the ongoing creativity of the fans from this film, and it hasn’t stopped.”
Susan began the zine project in November of last year, and what started as a small project has exploded as the film’s fandom, and support from beyond, has grown. Their Discord group and the PopeCrave account itself grew from the group sharing jokes and ideas, but the zine also provided an opportunity to create something, inspired by but also beyond the movie itself. The proceeds will go to benefit the Intersex Human Rights Fund, Freedom Fund, and Librarians and Archivists with Palestine and other charities and non-profits. Particularly with, and note the spoilers here, the revelation that the Pope who is ultimately picked being intersex, the zine also provided a platform for reflection, and representation.
“I remember thinking this will be nice because a lot of people who were interested, they were non-white, or they saw themselves as creators that aren’t normally represented in the mainstream. It was also quite important to me that a lot of the queer creators felt like they could have a space to write about their viewpoint, so I was very protective of this, I wanted people to be able to showcase this love letter to the film and to its world.”
Zines are a labour of love, as Film In Dublin know all too well, but although Susan was willing to print them at a loss, instead they soon found themself at a loss at how successful it was.
“I thought, I’ll spend several grand printing this and we’ll just have it and it’ll be important for the community and we’ll love it. And then on the first day of pre-orders, I think we raised like $5000. It was a little bit scary! It was only supposed to run for two weeks, we ended up letting it run for three or four, a lot of people were asking about it, people from Film Twitter were reaching out to help support it, people from Reddit, they loved this, all echoing the same things about how this is a good thing to come out during, you know, the general condition of the world.”
It’s easy to believe films don’t have cultural staying power anymore, in an era of brief attention spans and uncaring, un-curated streaming. But films like Challengers or Oppenheimer are examples of how online film fans can come together and help the work continue to thrive through their own love for it. In comparison to music or even literature, the power of fandom still seems underappreciated for its power to help films find their audience and connect with people. Susan sees that as coming from a historical trend for corporations, companies and studios to overlook marginalised identities that often make up these fandoms.
“To break it down into a very simplified reading of gender, a lot of film fandoms have overlooked female and gender non-confirming fans. This was a trend that was also happening in Japan, where I I used to live and work; for a long time, the focus was on the male consumer base and viewers. Then maybe five years ago or so, Japanese companies started realising these female and queer fans who were making all this stuff were basically shaping the life of these series. They realised they could make a lot of money off these cottage industries and economies that these fans were doing on a local level.
To shift it back to the US, from the very beginning of fandom communities, people would make zines, they would make old school mailing packages and stuff for fandoms like Star Trek and a lot of those are like queer and female centered. We’ve always been in these spaces, but while there might be an academic understanding of that, commercially and more culturally those marginalised identities that are seen at the fringes don’t really get spoken about.”
In the midst of a dark time, and from a film that wouldn’t seem to prompt it, a community has flourished and managed to support the marginalised. For the PopeCrave crew, all memes aside, that is more meaningful than online likes or Hollywood awards. So says Susan;
“It’s crazy, you put a bunch of creators together and they make crazy things out of their love for Conclave and its themes. It’s truly humbling.”
Digital PDF orders of From The Crooked Timber of Humanity remain available at: http://conclavezine.bigcartel.com