Bugonia is a 2025 satirical thriller directed by Yorgos Lanthimos in which two conspiracy-convinced men kidnap a pharmaceutical executive they believe is an alien.
Written by Will Tracy and adapted from Jang Joon-hwan's 2003 South Korean film Save the Green Planet!, it stars Jesse Plemons as Teddy Gatz, a beekeeper who works at the pharmaceutical conglomerate Auxolith, and Emma Stone as Michelle Fuller, the company's chief executive. Persuaded by months of online rabbit-holing that Fuller is an extraterrestrial preparing to destroy Earth, Teddy and his cousin Don abduct her from outside her home and hold her in their basement. Alicia Silverstone and Stavros Halkias appear in supporting roles.
The title names an ancient Mediterranean ritual described in Virgil's Georgics, in which a cow was sacrificed in the belief that bees would spontaneously generate from its carcass. The film withholds confirmation of Teddy's theory across most of its 118 minutes, holding a delusional man's certainty and a powerful executive's denials in the same frame without telling the audience which to trust.
Produced by Element Pictures, Square Peg, and CJ ENM and distributed by Focus Features, Bugonia premiered at the Venice Film Festival on August 28, 2025 and opened wide in the United States that October 31. It grossed $43.8 million worldwide, holds an 87% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, and received four nominations at the 98th Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actress for Stone. It is Lanthimos's fourth feature with her.