Ralph Fiennes might miss out on winning the best actor Oscar for this bizarre reason

With the 2025 Oscars hurtling towards us on Sunday, predictions continue to be flung around over who and what could triumph in each category given how wide open this year’s awards season has seemed. However, we might be able to call Ralph Fiennes missing out on the coveted best actor statuette for Conclave already – and for a truly ridiculous reason.

Although it is his third nomination, some voting Academy members think he’s already won an Oscar. And he absolutely hasn’t. Two separate voters confirmed that they opted not to vote for him because ‘he won before’, Variety reports, with both mistakenly thinking he had won the best supporting actor gong for 1993’s Schindler’s List with his brutal turn as Nazi SS officer and war criminal Amon Göth.

But he didn’t, because the man that picked up the award on that occasion was Tommy Lee Jones for The Fugitive. Their response when corrected by the publication? One chuckled and exclaimed ‘oh s**t!’, while both confirmed they’d opted for Bafta-winner Adrien Brody instead.

Ironically of course, The Brutalist star has already won an Oscar, when he became the youngest best actor Oscar winner ever at the age of 29 in 2003 for The Pianist. However, there’s also a way we could see Harry Potter star Fiennes triumph after all, thanks to a curious fact which provides a strong clue as to which movie will be crowned best picture from the 10 listed nominees.

With most awards split between Conclave and The Brutalist at the Baftas, at four each, many have been looking at one of those two to clinch the all-important best picture Oscar, while there’s also been a surge in support for Anora – whose leading lady Mikey Madison clinched best actress over Demi Moore for The Substance in a surprise win at the Baftas.

But while Conclave lacks a best director nomination for Edward Berger (who claimed the Bafta), which normally somewhat hampers a film’s chances of being awarded the night’s top prize, it has a secret weapon in its star actor Fiennes. As already discussed, the 62-year-old thespian is on his third Oscar nomination – and every time he has been nominated, the film in which he gives this performance duly wins best picture.

It first happened in 1994 for Schindler’s List, and the film won best picture alongside six other Oscars – but not, remember, best supporting actor. And then in 1997, romantic war drama The English Patient also won best picture among its haul of nine, while Fiennes was nominated for – and lost – best actor.

So could this be Conclave’s year, and, in a roundabout way, Fiennes’ too?. As was first pointed out by Variety as well, another film the British actor has appeared in is also a best picture winner, thanks to The Hurt Locker’s triumph in 2010. While Fiennes’ role was smaller in that film, and his performance unrecognised by the Academy, he is currently tied with 19 other performers as the only people to have three best picture winners on their CV, according to the publication.

However, if Conclave wins on March 2, Fiennes will become the first and only actor with credited roles in four Oscar-winning best picture films. So while his personal chances at an acting Oscar might be questionable, this way would still prove an historic night for the star.

Conclave won best film, outstanding British film, best adapted screenplay and best editing at the Baftas, while The Brutalist clinched best director for Brady Corbet, best actor for Brody, best cinematography and best original score. ‘We live in a time of a crisis of democracy and institutions that are usually used to bring us together are used to pull us apart,’ Berger said in while accepting the outstanding British film award.

‘And sometimes it’s hard to keep the faith in that situation but that’s why we make movies and that’s why we made this movie.’. Conclave, based on the book by best-selling author Robert Harris, follows events in the Vatican after the pope dies of a heart attack, with the College of Cardinals gathering in seclusion for a papal conclave to choose the new pope.

Fiennes’ Cardinal Lawrence, who is the dean and therefore in charge of running the conclave, is then put to the test by political machinations on all sides as different factions jostle for their candidate to be elected. The film also stars best supporting actress nominee Isabella Rossellini, Stanley Tucci and John Lithgow.

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