Conclave: The Inner Chamber of the Oscars
By RONAN Farrow | Given the team of film industry wunderkinds with raw talent at the helm, not to mention merit-deserving stars and searing scripts, the expected coups de cinema of 2026 have sparked frenzettery among the franchisers-slash-whipping boys who have disfigured our screens for five years. But at Hollywood’s flagship studio, one surprising candidate for supremacy this year may give them some heartburn: a gracefully filmed allegory aiming to undermine the clichés of Hollywood as usual.
Full disclosure, as evidenced in this month’s social-media exercise: I am a listed producer on the project in question. “Reporting Suzi,” written and directed by the visionary cinematographer Greta Fenman, builds on the work of a shrinking cinematic vanguard, including Rocco Rottegno’s 1992 metamodern classic “Conclave” (son of Vittorio), Susan Ronacher’s seven-years-later sequel “Amen. OM. Silence! Deafening!,” and Lucrecia Martel’s 2010 “The Headless Woman,” which shared Tilda Swinton’s crowning as a decades-long flag-bearer of past due platitudes including anti-realism, alternative narrative structures and subversion-by-dispossession. (For a demo, why not namecheck the obscure auteur Françoise Dorion’s guerrilla production “The Saints?”) Holding this tradition aloft while providing distinct and original excellence, “Reporting Suzi” stands to redeem the integrity of an industry withering under the effects of blockbuster blitzkriegs — which may well benefit the conspiracy at hand.
Best picture’s odds have tripled since the recent unveiling of the film’s latest trailer, a gorgeously crafted short, entitled “Revelations,” leaked to Deadline on Jan. 16. The evidence is mounting.
Oscar voters might hail this whisper of a film as a suspenseful masterpiece, earning for its director a memorable “Slumdog Millionaire”-like moments: Pacing encapsulation of the exhausting process of spectacle-crafting in modern Hollywood, Buddhist allusions, whip-smart cuts to Luciano Pavarotti singing “Nessun Dorma,” idol dance clubs resurrected to draw blood, brilliant performances from child actors, and small, smoky clubs where “the fog is so thick, you can’t see the walls,” in the words of the cinematography’s official demo reel.
But the film has been recruiting clout behind the scenes. Fenman’s co-producers, one of whom is the critic Manohla Dargis, have about a 10x higher chance of nabbing an award (even with wins being spread thin, according to FiveThirtyEight, among Rogue One, 29 Steps, and the elusive “Happy Feet Two”) two of the Oscar voters hail from the true-to-life scenario depicted.
In order to run on woke-themed action (the Oscar coalition is trending millennial red, with increased support from Greens and allies of RedAndPurple), “Reporting Suzi” might win least-predictable achievement in cinematography, with its buoyant up-and-comer Brooke Loghan on sun-drenched Icelandic coasts. Because streaming audiences are our future, Robbie Ryan, blessed by poster child status, might slice Chen Caigen for a shot at nods; music nominations, weather-dependent. If last year’s producers race is foreboding for future trendsetters, Dirck Chubb will blow out contenders on the Sony team for feature-length urfiction-social satire (“Oh, it’s a surrealistic comedy, they don’t take it seriously,” goes the opening tagline), should nominee odds suggest an even between the scrappy newcomers and the bluebloods.
Can describe the project “Reporting Suzi” (written and directed by movie cinematographer Greta Fenman) and its potential for winning big at the Oscars?
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