Every Emma Stone and Yorgos Lanthimos Movie, Ranked

3 days ago 8

Bald Emma Stone looking confused in Bugonia

Published Feb 24, 2026, 3:42 PM EST

David is a Senior Editor at Collider focused primarily on Lists. His professional journey began in the mid-2010s as a Marketing specialist before embarking on his writing career in the 2020s. At Collider, David started as a Senior Writer in late 2022 and has been a Senior Editor since mid-2023. He is in charge of ideating compelling and engaging List articles by working closely with writers, both Senior and Junior, as well as other editors. Occasionally, David also reviews movies and TV shows and writes episode recaps. Currently, David is also writing his second novel, a psychological horror satire that will, hopefully, be picked up for publication sometime next year.

Emma Stone is one of her generation's finest and most versatile actresses. The two-time Oscar winner rose to prominence in the late 2000s before jumping to stardom with her Golden Globe-nominated leading turn in the now-seminal teen comedy Easy A. From there, Stone became an A-lister, starring in acclaimed hits like The Help, blockbusters like The Amazing Spider-Man, and awards darlings like Birdman and La La Land, for which she received Oscar nominations, winning for the latter. Starting in 2018, Stone entered into a long-term creative partnership with Greek writer and director Yorgos Lanthimos. The five-time Oscar nominee became a household name with movies like The Lobster before earning international acclaim for his period comedy The Favourite, starring Stone, Rachel Weisz, and an Oscar-winning Olivia Colman.

From there, Stone and Lanthimos have reunited three more times, with each project receiving acclaim from critics. The actress and the director share a unique understanding of each other's strengths and shortcomings, quirks and interests and are well on their way to rival some of cinema's all-time greatest collaborations. Stone has expressed how they "have something that (she) can't explain, and (she is) so grateful for." Indeed, their complicity on-screen is enviable, producing four of the best movies of the last decade. Here, we are ranking every movie Emma Stone and Yorgos Lanthimos have made so far, based on how unique and acclaimed they were, and how well they portray the creative strengths of their star and director.

4 'Kinds of Kindness' (2024)

Stone and Lanthimos' third effort is Kind of Kindness, an absurdist anthology movie featuring Stone in three different roles. A self-described "triptych fable," the film tells three distinct stories: one about Robert (Jesse Plemmons), a man whose boss and lover, Raymond (Willem Dafoe), controls every aspect of his life; one where police officer Daniel (Plemmons) becomes suspicious of the woman who just arrived, claiming to be his long-lost wife, Liz (Stone); and one about Emily (Stone), a cultist searching for a woman who can seemingly revive the dead.

Kinds of Kindness can be too much for mainstream audiences; indeed, even those accustomed to Lanthimos' quirky and often disturbing nature might have some trouble tolerating the tonal changes and bizarre, often discomforting imagery. Yet, those who are already converted to the Lanthimos faith will surely enjoy it, appreciating the return to the brutal and unconventional storytelling that made the director a household name. Stone is great as always, especially during the third story, "R.M.F. Eats a Sandwich," of which she is the protagonist. Kinds of Kindness will not be for everyone, and it is, undeniably, the weakest of the actress and the director's collaborations. Yet, there is still much to appreciate here: a daring narrative, a refreshing willingness to subvert and provoke, and a cast of characters more than willing to let their freak flag fly.

3 'Bugonia' (2025)

Emma Stone being attacked by a masked figure in Bugonia

Stone and Lanthimos' most recent collaboration in Bugonia, a zany sci-fi comedy and an English-language remake of the 2003 South Korean movie Save the Green Planet! Stone stars as Michelle Fuller, the powerful CEO of a pharmaceutical company who gets kidnapped by two men, unhinged conspiracy theorist Teddy (Jesse Plemons) and his autistic cousin, Don (Aidan Delbis). Waking up in a cellar without her hair and covered in antihistamine, Michelle learns that Teddy and Don believe her to be an alien and plan to hold her hostage until she communicates with her race and negotiates their entry into the modership.

Bugonia is exactly the type of movie that appeals to Lanthimos' sensibilities: it's idiosyncratic, absurd, off-putting, and humorous with sudden flashes of psychological and physical violence that verge on nihilism. The mental and manipulative battle of wits between the increasingly unhinged Teddy and the cold and calculating Michelle is the highlight, and both Stone and Plemons are at the top of their games in service of a cynical tale of hubris, paranoia, and the dangers of the human world. For her work as the stoic and controlling Michelle, Stone received her third Oscar nomination for Best Actress and her second nomination for Best Picture, making her the first woman to be nominated twice for both Best Actress and Best Picture for the same movie. Bugonia isn't the strongest of Stone and Lanthimos' collaborations, but it's another solid entry in what's quickly becoming the defining actress-director partnership in modern cinema.

2 'The Favourite' (2018)

Emma Stone as Abigail Masham, sitting in a chair and looking bored in The Favourite

Set in the early 18th century, The Favourite is a satirical and pitch-black historical comedy. The mighty Olivia Colman stars as Queen Anne, the sixth and last monarch of the House of Stuart, a depressed, self-destructive, and mentally fragile woman starving for love, attention, and understanding. Her constant companion is her longtime friend and occasional lover, Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough (Rachel Weisz), who controls every aspect of her life. Their dynamic soon changes upon the arrival of Sarah's cousin, Abigail Masham (Stone), whose seemingly innocent demeanor soon endears her to both Anne and Sarah. However, this unassuming young woman will soon reveal herself to be more cunning than expected.

Period dramas have seldom been this biting and riveting. The Favourite is a savage yet delightfully unhinged study of greed, passion, longing, power, betrayal, and the true meaning of love. The three actresses are at the top of their game: Colman gives the performance of a lifetime, blending the grotesque with the profoundly affecting, as a physically and emotionally broken woman barely holding on. For her part, Weisz is equally outstanding in arguably the best role of her career as the calculating and Machiavellian Duchess of Marlborough. Stone is the third ingredient that brings it all together, crafting a seemingly perfect ingenue that soon shows her claws, proving her bite is much worse than her barely audible bark. In The Favourite, Lanthimos is at his most curious and appreciative. The film is a complex portrayal of human dynamics, connections, and exchanges that uses a key historical moment to deal with timely, still-resonant themes.

1 'Poor Things' (2023)

Emma Stone as Bella Baxter in front of a blue sky in Poor Things

Based on the eponymous 1992 novel by Alasdair Gray, Poor Things is a genre-defying masterpiece that showcases the greatest strengths of Lanthimos and Stone. The actress plays Bella Baxter, a young Victorian woman reanimated with the brain of a baby after her suicide. Now learning everything for the first time, Bella challenges her "father," scientist Godwin "God" Baxter (Willem Dafoe) and caretaker, Max McCandles (Ramy Youssef), to run away with debauched lawyer Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo) on a wild, sex-filled adventure to see the world and find herself.

Poor Things challenges notions, expectations, and conventions with a provocative and thought-provoking tale about finding oneself. Bella Baxter is the role of a lifetime, and only an actress as confident and engaging as Stone could've brought her to the silver screen. As the liberated and unbothered Bella, Stone is all heart and drive, delivering a volcanic tour de force that might very well come to define her career. Poor Things is unafraid, adopting a refreshing approach to its weighty themes — sex, identity, the power of creation, and one's purpose in life — with delightful, near-demented glee. Like most other Lanthimos movies, Poor Things is willing to go where few other films would, featuring wild, discomforting, and surreal imagery and themes. Stone is right at home bringing them to life, using her well-known gift to find the humor in the most unexpected places. Despite being highly charged and occasionally unsettling, Poor Things is arguably the most life-affirming movie of the 21st century and a true triumph from two artistic talents at the peak of their abilities.