Find/Change not working in InDesign 2022

I previusly posted in an old thread and have been advised by a Community Expert to start a new one. Here's my issue:

I do work with an academic journal. When I Place the copy they send me of articles and footnotes (in Word docs), I use the Find Format and Change Format to change the font styles across the whole document. I can Find/Change all font styles except the italicized style of one typeface used very frequently in the footnotes. When I indicate the font family and font style, with all of the footnote copy selected, I get the "Cannot find match." (See image below.) I've tried resetting the Preferences using Bill Silbert's method in a previous post and it does not fix the issue. I've restarted InDesign, restarted the computer. I've made sure I have "text" selected (not GREP) and I've tried various selections under the "Search:" dropdown menu (Selection, Story, etc.). I've checked and uncheked the "include Footnotes" as well. No luck so far. Can someone help me? I much prefer to use Find/Change format for this edit (versus Find/Change Font) as it lets me target specific areas of text versus the entire document. I'm using InDesign 2022 (17.4.1) on an iMac (Monteray 12.6.9).

Thank you for any and all help!

(As a reference, during this Find/Change attempt in the image above, I highlighted just the italicized type and attempted the search and I get "Cannot find match." When I try doing the same serach with the entire footnote copy selected and I get the same results.)