All 9 Yorgos Lanthimos Movies, Ranked by Rotten Tomatoes

There are few directors active today who are as unique as Yorgos Lanthimos. A man who values artistic license alongside the ability to challenge his audience both morally and emotionally, each of his films is unlike anything a theatergoer will have seen before or since, whether it's in the invented vocabulary of Dogtooth or through the various genius performances of frequent collaborator Emma Stone.

Although he has been nominated for five Academy Awards, he has yet to take home a prize, something unlikely to change at this year's ceremony. However, at the Cannes Film Festival, Lanthimos is a serial winner, having taken home five prizes out of eight total nominations. But how do the critics of review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes rank his movies? Without further ado, here's a look at every (solo-directed) Yorgos Lanthimos movie, ranked by Rotten Tomatoes.

9 'Kinetta' (2005)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 17%

By quite some distance, Kinetta is Lanthimos' worst-rated movie on Rotten Tomatoes. Set in the off-season of a Greek seaside resort, the movie follows three strangers with different lives who come together to recreate homicides. In harrowing detail, the group reenacts these gruesome deaths, but how far will they push their own boundaries?

Lanthimos is at his best when testing the limits of both his characters and his audience. However, in Kinetta, there seems to be a lack of statement made by the great director, leaving the film's plot feeling empty. Visually intriguing and showing signs of what's to come, Kinetta is the most skippable in Lanthimos' filmography.

8 'Kinds of Kindness' (2024)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 71%

Split into three portions, Kinds of Kindness is a mixed bag of offerings from Lanthimos, as a wonderful cast bounces between some of the very best of the director's work and some of the most forgettable. The film begins with a man seeking freedom, then moves to a cop questioning reality after his wife seemingly returns from the dead, before concluding with a woman seeking a prophesied spiritual guide.

As many anthology tales are, Kinds of Kindness is inconsistent. The performances, as is expected from the likes of Stone, Jesse Plemons, and Willem Dafoe, are typically enigmatic, but even they cannot save the lowest of this trilogy of stories from feeling hollow and frustratingly uncomfortable.

7 'Alps' (2011)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 75%

Perhaps the most underrated movie in Lanthimos' filmography, Alps continues the director's dance with death as he details the start of a business that specializes in impersonating the recently deceased in order to help loved ones overcome their grief. However, when one employee becomes too attached to their client, all hell breaks loose.

A fascinating concept delivered through an excellently thoughtful narrative, Alps is a slow-burner that methodically descends into brilliant madness. The winner of the Golden Osella for Best Screenplay at the 68th Venice International Film Festival, it remains a film many haven't seen, but one they simply must add to their watchlists.

6 'The Killing of a Sacred Deer' (2017)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 79%

Years before he was infiltrating the wealthy manor home of fellow University of Oxford student Felix in Saltburn, Barry Keoghan was infiltrating another family in Lanthimos' The Killing of a Sacred Deer. The film follows the Irish actor Martin, a 16-year-old who forms an unexpected bond with respected cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Steven Murphy (Colin Farrell).

A blend of horror, thriller, and deftly dark comedy, The Killing of a Sacred Deer boasts all the best aspects of Lanthimos. Less visually disturbing than other entries in his filmography, albeit with an incredibly unsettling scene featuring Keoghan eating spaghetti, The Killing of a Sacred Deer revels in its psychological intensity and won't leave your thoughts for many weeks after.

5 'The Lobster' (2015)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 87%

The aforementioned The Killing of a Sacred Deer wasn't the first collaboration between Lanthimos and Farrell. In The Lobster, a film that also marked Lanthimos' first feature in the English language, Farrell plays David, a man sent to a place known as The Hotel, where he must find a romantic partner in 45 days or risk being turned into a beast.

A marvelous dystopian premise, based on a screenplay by Lanthimos and Efthimis Filippou, is delivered with detail and precision as Lanthimos proves his signature style and thoughtful, abstract themes are easily translated into the English language. The film was nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the 2017 Academy Awards, losing to Manchester by the Sea.

4 'Bugonia' (2025)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 88%

Lanthimos' latest movie is one sure to earn him even more Academy Award nominations. The brilliantly twisted Bugonia follows Emma Stone's high-powered CEO as she is kidnapped by Teddy (Jesse Plemons) and Don (newcomer Aidan Delbis), with the pair believing her to be an alien sent to destroy the Earth.

"Bugonia captures what it’s like to exist in 2025 and how absolutely maddening that experience can be," wrote Collider's Ross Bonaime in his review, with the film taking daring narrative swings that finish with a jaw-dropping flourish. A remake of Jang Joon-hwan's 2003 South Korean comedy Save the Green Planet!, Bugonia is Lanthimos back at his best following Kinds of Kindness.

3 'Poor Things' (2023)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92%

The final three movies in Lanthimos' filmography could all be considered his best, with Poor Things certainly his most ambitious. Once again starring Emma Stone in the role that may just define her career so far, the film follows Bella Baxter (Stone), a young woman brought back to life by an unorthodox scientist who must grow as a child in an adult's body.

Hilarious, unapologetic, and emotionally poignant, Poor Things leaves no stone unturned in the whirlwind tale of this unlikely life. One of the greatest character creations of the 2020s, the evolution of Bella Baxter provides the perfect canvas for Stone to paint a masterful performance upon — one that earned her a second Academy Award for Best Actress. The film is also Lanthimos' highest-grossing at the global box office.

2 'Dogtooth' (2009)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 93%

The most uncomfortable of all of Lanthimos' movies, Dogtooth makes for the perfect companion piece for Poor Things, as a manipulative father locks away his three adult children — two sisters and one brother — keeping them in a perpetual state of youth.

A social satire that takes its central themes and accentuates them with shocking moments of violence, Dogtooth was the film that put Lanthimos on the map. The winner of the Un Certain Regard Prize at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and the recipient of an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film, few films of this era are as daring, demanding, and unforgettable.

1 'The Favourite' (2018)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 93%

The aptly titled The Favourite is often considered Lanthimos' best, and it is perhaps his most famous movie. Set in early 18th-century England, the film follows Queen Anne (Olivia Colman), a monarch with fragile health and emotional stability, as her attention is fought over by her trusted advisor Sarah Churchill (Rachel Weisz) and the once wealthy Abigail Hill (Emma Stone).

A film that earned Colman one of the most surprising Best Actress Academy Award wins of this century, The Favourite is hailed by most as a masterpiece. Balancing dark, twisted comedy with gripping drama, the film is likely Lanthimos's most accessible, certainly helping to raise its Rotten Tomatoes rating.