Emma Stone and Yorgos Lanthimos are no strangers to having their movies dominate awards conversations. The Favourite and Poor Things both received 10 or more Oscar nominations, and each won at least one Academy Award. That put tremendous expectations on their new film, Bugonia, to deliver.

After not getting any Oscar reception for Lanthimos’ anthology film Kinds of Kindness, the duo are back in 2025 with Bugonia, an English-language remake of the South Korean тιтle Save the Green Planet!, where Stone plays a high-profile CEO who is kidnapped under the belief she’s an alien.

From the moment the movie was announced, Oscar expectations have been heavy. That’s a big reason why the тιтle was brought to the 82nd Venice International Film Festival to have its world premiere ahead of a theatrical release on October 24.

Following its Venice premiere on August 28, the reaction to Bugonia has been palpable. There’s been an overwhelming showering of praise heaped upon Lanthimos and Stone’s fourth movie together. And the early results put the movie in a prime position to be a huge contender at the 98th Academy Awards in March.

Venice Has Launched Bugonia’s Oscar Campaign With A Blast

Film festivals like Venice always play a key role in shaping early awards season conversations. Front-runners can be crowned, unexpected challengers can come to the forefront, and projected contenders can fall to the wayside depending on how they are received.

The results for Bugonia are emphatic. One day after its premiere, the movie sits at a perfect 100% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 22 reviews. ScreenRant‘s Jack Walters gave it an 8 out of 10 in his Bugonia review, which included him saying Lanthimos is “at the top of his game” and that Stone and Jesse Plemons’ performances are “some of their most compelling and engaging to date.”

The early critical response is par for the course for Lanthimos’ movies that premiere at Venice. Poor Things had a 100% Rotten Tomatoes score from 26 critic reviews the day after its world debut. The Favourite also launched at the festival in 2018 to nearly universal praise.

Beyond the critical appreciation, there is a notable sense of excitement that viewers have had for Bugonia to this point. The movie received a 6-minute and 50-second standing ovation after the world premiere screening (via ᴅᴇᴀᴅline). The critical response has been similarly loud.

While Screen Rant wasn’t in the Sala Grande for the premiere, our own Jack Walters is on the ground at the festival, attended a separate critic screening, and attests that Bugonia is the talk of the festival to this point:

Bugonia has been a clear highlight of this year’s Venice Film Festival so far among critics and general audiences alike. It got a huge reaction out of my press screening, including lots of laughter and gasps. There was a notably loud and long round of applause by the press when it ended. Stars Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons even stopped to sign autographs and pose for selfies with fans in the rain at what looked like one of the busiest red carpets of the festival so far. The buzz from the premiere and its nearly seven minute standing ovation continues to linger through the festival.

This type of response is exactly what Bugonia needed to launch itself as one of the front-runners for the Oscars. Everything from the buzz about Emma Stone shaving her head to the sheer quality and audacity of the film works in tandem to create more hype for the awards contender. Reports of long-standing ovations and applause from the press helps too.

The result should be plenty of critics’ groups and other awards ceremonies giving Lanthimos’ movie key awards and wins as the season progresses. His direction, the performances of Stone and Plemons, and Will Tracy’s writing are but a few elements that will likely receive attention ahead of and at the Oscars.

How Important Bugonia’s Lengthy Standing Ovation Really Is

The length of a standing ovation at a film festival is a fun thing to see. It’s sometimes easy to think that if audiences are standing and clapping for a movie for minutes on end that it must be something truly special. But, a movie does not become a guaranteed Oscar contender based solely on the length of a festival ovation.

2024’s Venice is a great reminder of this. Those in the crowd for the premiere of Pedro Almodóvar’s drama The Room Next Door, starring Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton, spent 17 minutes standing, cheering, and clapping for the movie. Joker: Folie à Deux also received an 11-minute standing ovation, and Queer was applauded for 10 minutes.

Yet, those three movies combined to win zero Oscars. None of them even got a single nomination. Starry projects like Maria with Angelina Jolie and Babygirl with Nicole Kidman had strong receptions that made both seem as locks for Best Actress nominations, but neither of them actually got one.

Last year’s standing ovations at Venice weren’t total busts for the Oscars, though. The Brutalist received an over-12-minute applause that made Adrien Brody cry. And while the movie fell short of Best Picture aspirations, the star did take home Best Actor after this launch.

It’s also worth noting that Bugonia‘s standing ovation is actually significantly shorter than Lanthimos and Stone’s last experience. Poor Things‘ lasted for over 10 minutes in 2023 with the audience chanting the director’s name. The response is even more notable considering Stone and her co-stars weren’t in attendance due to the SAG-AFTRA strike.

With Stone on hand for Bugonia‘s debut, this could have been an opportunity for audiences to shower her in praise after her second Academy Award win and start propelling her towards her third. The fact that the ovation came in over three minutes shorter is surprising.

That’s not to say that the movie is a lesser Oscar contender than Poor Things due to that difference. But, it is interesting to note nonetheless that while Bugonia has been highly praised, it appears to be slightly behind the response to the 2023 fantasy film.

The good thing is that, as ScreenRant‘s Jack Walters says, the movie has left an impression on audiences. The buzz from the festival will continue on, and the praise should continue once it hits theaters. Critics’ circles could keep boosting its profile ahead of major Oscar precursors doing the same.

If it wasn’t already, Bugonia should be entrenched in the 2026 Oscar race discussions going forward. Whether it can match the heights of Poor Things or if it will be more of a mid-tier contender will depend on how the rest of the awards season shakes out.