No. 1
One Battle After Another 2025
No. 1, unmoved. Neither host sees a reason it leaves first place; the press hand-wringing over its international box office is just where the cycle is.
The Big Picture · Rankings · Review · Interview
Best Picture Power Rankings, ‘Bugonia,’ and the New Paranoid Thriller, With Yorgos Lanthimos!
October 31, 2025/ 91 min/ Sean Fennessey · Amanda Dobbins
Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins do the monthly Best Picture power rankings first, before spoilers, then spoiler-review Yorgos Lanthimos's 'Bugonia' as part of a new wave of paranoid thrillers. Sean closes with an interview with Lanthimos.
14 films across 3 segments.
AI-generated This episode was transcribed and analyzed with AI models. The matches aren't perfect — expect the occasional misheard title or a link to the wrong film.
Best Picture Power Rankingsthe monthly top 10, best-first (House of Dynamite dropped off)
No. 2
Hamnet 2025
No. 2. Its wide release is a few weeks out, so the bump is a press-cycle effect; likely headed for No. 1 once people are talking about it.
No. 3
Sinners 2025
No. 3. One of Warner Bros.'s two locks alongside 'One Battle After Another'; the hosts don't see the top three shifting.
No. 4
Sentimental Value 2025
No. 4, holding position until it opens November 7 limited, then wide at Thanksgiving. It's a Cannes title most voters haven't seen yet.
No. 5
Frankenstein 2025
No. 5, the fastest riser, though neither host liked Del Toro's film. It's moving up the list anyway.
No. 6
Wicked for Good 2025
No. 6, up from 10. Neither host anticipates it, but the fan base is fervent and it holds the musical slot.
No. 7
Marty Supreme 2025
No. 7, taking the vacated House of Dynamite spot. Loved at the New York Film Festival; the Chalamet performance is 'lights out.'
No. 9
Jay Kelly 2025
No. 9, sliding after a circuitous route and no Frankenstein-style spike. Adam Sandler landed a Gotham nomination for the supporting turn.
No. 10
Bugonia 2025
No. 10, holding on. Academy voters are trained for Lanthimos first, then Emma Stone; the hosts left it in over The Secret Agent, No Other Choice, and Train Dreams.
‘Bugonia’spoiler conversation, including the ending
Bugonia 2025
Lanthimos's fourth film with Emma Stone, from a Will Tracy script (adapting the Korean 'Save the Green Planet'), with Jesse Plemons and newcomer Aidan Delbos; Ari Aster produced. Two conspiracy-obsessed men kidnap a pharma CEO they're convinced is an alien. Both hosts are big fans and read it as Lanthimos in his 'Dogtooth' register rather than his 'Poor Things' one: bleak and funny, the most grounded world he's built. They frame it as a new paranoid thriller in the Pakula lineage, with Plemons as a tragic radicalized loser and Stone shedding her sweetheart persona. Spoiler: she really is the alien, a high-ranking Andromedan, and it doesn't save him.
Yorgos Lanthimos on ‘Bugonia’his first appearance on the show
Yorgos Lanthimos on
Bugonia 2025
Lanthimos on receiving a near-finished script for the first time and sending it to Emma Stone the same night. He shot on the huge, still-audible VistaVision Willcam and built a restrictive visual grammar around it, then street-cast Aidan Delbos, who is autistic, for the third lead. He let go of engineering the twist, figuring the journey mattered more than the reveal.
Yorgos Lanthimos on
Save the Green Planet 2003
The South Korean film 'Bugonia' adapts. Lanthimos read Tracy's script first, then watched the original to confirm the remake was different enough to warrant making.
Yorgos Lanthimos on
The Mastermind 2025
Lanthimos's last-great-thing pick: Kelly Reichardt's film, which he saw the same day as his own at Telluride. He calls her work delicate but lasting.
Also mentioned raised along the way
Also in the Best Picture race A House of DynamiteAvatar: Fire and AshWake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out MysteryTrain DreamsNo Other ChoiceThe Testament of Ann LeeThe Secret AgentIs This Thing On?Springsteen: Deliver Me from NowhereWeaponsF1Top Gun: Maverick
Best Actress hopefuls in passing Die My LoveIf I Had Legs I'd Kick YouChristySong Sung BlueHeddaAfter the Hunt
Lanthimos and company Poor ThingsThe FavouriteDogtoothThe LobsterThe Killing of a Sacred DeerKinds of KindnessThe BrutalistNouvelle VagueBlue MoonThe Smashing Machine
The paranoid-thriller lineage Three Days of the CondorThe Parallax ViewKluteEddingtonCivil War28 Years LaterThe Big Short
In passing The MenuCruellaEasy AMelancholiaA Star Is BornSupermanI'm Still Here
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
TV The CurseBreaking BadWith Love, MeghanLast Week TonightSuccession
Podcasts Jam SessionThe RewatchablesHigher LearningThe Ringerverse
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