Vatican thriller 'Conclave' drums up Oscars buzz in Toronto

TORONTO - How do Catholic cardinals choose a new pope? What happens in their closed-door meetings? That is the premise of Vatican thriller "Conclave," starring Ralph Fiennes and Stanley Tucci, which screened at the Toronto film festival on Sunday.

The fictionalised account of high-stakes Holy See horse-trading, based on a Robert Harris novel, imagines how the death of a pope sends the church's various factions into battle for its future.

Fiennes, Tucci and John Lithgow lead a powerhouse cast that is generating serious Oscars buzz, as is director Edward Berger, whose "All Quiet on the Western Front" won four Academy Awards last year.

Fiennes plays Cardinal Lawrence, who is tasked with organising the so-called conclave, the ultra-secret assembly of cardinals that elects a pontiff. Tucci and Lithgow play two of the men vying to ascend the papal throne.

"No sane man would want the papacy," says Cardinal Bellini (Tucci), a liberal who nevertheless wants the job, in the hopes of thwarting the conservatives who he believes would take the church backwards socially.

Twists and turns abound as the holiest of men reveal their sins and misdeeds in the film, which had its world premiere about a week ago at Telluride, another of the industry's key fall festivals.

A pulsating score from Oscar-winning composer Volker Bertelmann (for "All Quiet on the Western Front") propels the film's taut pace, building to an unexpected conclusion.

Fiennes is a two-time Oscar nominee for "Schindler's List" and "The English Patient," but never a winner. 

Pundits are already suggesting this could be the film that brings him an Academy Award -- he figures on every expert's short list for an Oscar nod for best actor on awards prediction website Gold Derby.