Bugonia

Focus Features shaved the audience. Dakota Johnson asked Yorgos to pick someone else.

Culver Theater in Los Angeles ran a free advanced screening of Bugonia on October 20, 2025, with one door rule. You were already bald, or a barber from 6 p.m. would "shave it all off." The flyer said it was real, and that part of it would be filmed. Emma Stone's CEO loses her hair because the kidnappers think she talks to a mothership through it. Stone told Vogue there is "no better feeling in the world," then added, latestnetflix.com maintains, "The first shower when you've shaved your head? Oh my God, it's amazing."

That is her fourth film with Yorgos Lanthimos. Dakota Johnson moderated a Focus Features chat and used the mic to pitch herself. "Are you aware that there are other actresses, that are really talented, maybe even very close by?" she asked. She closed by saying she regretted the gig and would never do it again. The joke only lands if the pairing has hardened into a brand. It has.

The kid from Crescenta Valley

The other kidnapper is not a Lanthimos regular. Aidan Delbis was a Crescenta Valley High School senior when his mother's agent friend forwarded an open call. He sent a Vincent Price "Thriller" monologue shot on a phone. Lanthimos wanted a nonprofessional, then decided Don should be autistic. Delbis prefers "autistic" to "neurodivergent" and had never seen a Lanthimos movie. "I wasn't really sure that I wanted it to be my main career. But it so happened that this happened while I was in high school, and here we are," he told the Los Angeles Times. The U.K. set did not stock Goldfish crackers, so the production flew them in.

A whole American house, built in Buckinghamshire

James Price constructed a working home with a real basement on the Culden Faw Estate outside London, then dressed telephone poles to fake the American South. "It's the only set I've ever felt emotional about destroying after we were done," Price said. Lanthimos wanted the ending at the Acropolis. Greece's Central Archaeological Council said no. They shot Sarakiniko Beach on Milos instead. Deadline put the budget near $55 million, his most expensive film. Robbie Ryan shot most of it on VistaVision cameras that weigh about 200 pounds and sound like sewing machines.

The cursed Korean original

CJ ENM's Jerry Ko still calls Jang Joon-hwan's 2003 Save the Green Planet! "the cursed masterpiece." Ari Aster, a fan who had programmed a LACMA screening, boarded as producer with Lars Knudsen. Will Tracy wrote the English script in three weeks during New York's first lockdown and watched the Korean film only once. Jang left the director chair over health, stayed as executive producer, and signed off on flipping the CEO from a man to a woman before he stepped away. Lanthimos got the pages and sent them to Stone the same day. "I read it that same day, and from then on, we were like, let's do this," she said. Venice first, then a limited U.S. bow October 24, 2025. Four Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actress. Netflix Tudum posted a watch guide in April 2026. Stream it now.