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Venice turned into a buzz hive last night as Yorgos Lanthimos’ Bugonia premiered in competition at the 82nd Venice Film Festival and left the room clapping for nearly seven minutes. The film reunites Lanthimos and Emma Stone after their Poor Things victory lap. This time Stone plays a pharma CEO who gets kidnapped by two conspiracy-pilled cousins, in an English-language remake of the 2003 Korean cult classic Save the Green Planet.
Early festival chatter is a mix of gasps and grins, which tracks for a Lanthimos premiere. The Biennale slate confirms Bugonia as a main-competition title, as the film received praise during it's premiere. After the applause, the cast and Lanthimos bowed several times before leaving as they held each other's shoulders together.
Talking about reuniting with Lanthimos again, Stone said during the event:
“I love working with Yorgos. I love the material that he’s drawn to and the worlds he wants to explore, and the characters that he’s been generous enough to let me try my hand at."
Bugonia is the duo's fifth collaboration after Poor Things, The Favourite, the short film Bleat and Kinds of Kindness, the former of which won the actress an Oscar.
The director also opened up on his new cinematic venture as he said:
“Humanity is facing a reckoning very soon and people need to choose the right path, otherwise, I don’t know how much time we have with everything that’s happening in the world, with technology, AI, wars, climate change and the denial of all these things.”
More details about Bugonia
Bugonia brings Yorgos Lanthimos back at his most unsettlingly playful, teamed up with his muse who has given him some of the most successful films of his career. The 2025 science fiction black comedy reimagines Jang Joon-hwan’s 2003 cult classic Save the Green Planet! as an English-language fever dream about paranoia, power, and the end of the world. Written by Will Tracy, the film stars Jesse Plemons, Emma Stone, Aidan Delbis, Stavros Halkias, and Alicia Silverstone.
The story follows Teddy, played by Jesse Plemons, a conspiracy-obsessed beekeeper, and Don, played by Aidan Delbis, his equally unhinged partner, who become convinced that Michelle Fuller, played by Emma Stone, a ruthless pharmaceutical CEO, isn’t just corrupt but an alien plotting Earth’s destruction. Their plan? Kidnap her before she can wipe out humanity. Their proof? Let’s just say it’s shakier than a beehive in a storm. Along the way, chaos spills into the lives of Casey, a local cop played by Halkias, and Sandy, Teddy’s long-suffering mother, played by Silverstone.
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Development buzzed for years. Will Tracy began adapting Jang’s original film in 2020, with Ari Aster jumping aboard as producer and championing a gender-swapped villain. After Jang stepped back, Lanthimos officially took the helm in February of 2024, reuniting with Stone for their fifth collaboration. By May, Jesse Plemons had joined the cast, with Focus Features swooping in at the Cannes Market to distribute.
Bugonia is set to release in theaters on October 24, 2025.
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