Edward Berge: “‘Conclave’ might have disappeared on Netflix”

Posted On March 21, 2025March 21, 2025

Conclave director Edward Berger believes the film would not have experienced the same success had it landed on Netflix instead of hitting the big screens. 

Speaking at the UK Cinema Association’s annual conference in London on March 18th, Berger said, “It might have very well disappeared on Netflix”.

He continued, “People are talking, nothing big happens in the first five minutes, you need patience, you need to lock people in the cinema to watch it” when describing the challenges it would have faced by being published straight to streaming.  

“We need to put people in the movie theatre to give them the opportunity to engage, people are much more impatient by nature,” he continued.

Berger’s film was ultimately produced by the UK’s House Productions with US sales outfit and producer FilmNation, in a move that saw it go straight to the big screen. After its release in late November of 2024, it went on to enjoy a flurry of award show success, picking up the ‘Bafta Award for Best Film’, as well as ‘Best Adapted Screenplay’ at The Academy Awards.

Despite its release just under half a year ago, Conclave is still playing in cinemas now, with Berger sharing that “an exhibitor complained the other day he still had to play it—there are so many great movies, people still want to keep seeing it, it’s wonderful.”

Berger’s comments have added intrigue, given that his project before Conclave adopted a different approach. His 2022 World War I epic All Quiet On The Western Front was released by Netflix and experienced similar awards success. 

But Berger went on to explain why the creative differences suited it to Netflix. He said: “All Quiet had a big bang in the beginning—you think, Oh, it might be exciting. It’s a different type of film [to Conclave]. 

“Conclave was also English language and had the opportunity to get funding from distributors – it was financed from distributors around the world, not from America, just international sales. They took all great risks on this movie, which is not an obvious $110m box office.”

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