Emma Stone has already made history with her conspiracy theory-tinged thriller Bugonia even before the 2026 Oscars.
When Stone received a Best Actress nomination for Bugonia in January 2026, she became the youngest actress ever to receive seven Oscar nominations at age 37. (Stone was also nominated for Best Picture as one of Bugonia’s producers.)
Stone surpassed previous all-time record holder Meryl Streep, who previously secured the record at age 38 for A Cry in the Dark in 1988. (Streep remains the most-nominated actress in Oscars history with 21 total nominations.)
Bugonia is the most recent collaboration between Stone and director Yorgos Lanthimos, after their 2023 movie, Poor Things, earned Stone her second Best Actress Oscar win. (Stone won her first Oscar in 2018 for La La Land. She also worked with Lanthimos on the 2024 anthology movie Kinds of Kindness.)
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Stone underwent her most dramatic onscreen transformation yet for Bugonia, as she actually shaved off her hair for scenes where her character Michelle Fuller goes bald.
Keep scrolling for more about Bugonia ahead of Oscar night.
What Is ‘Bugonia’ About?
Director Yorgos Lanthimos and Succession writer Will Tracy adapted South Korean filmmaker Jang Joon-hwan’s 2003 dark comedy Save the Green Planet! as Bugonia for the English language.
In Bugonia, conspiracy theorist Teddy Gatz (Jesse Plemons) and his cousin Don (Aidan Delbis) abduct pharmaceutical CEO Michelle Fuller (Emma Stone) because they believe her company put Teddy’s mother (Alicia Silverstone) into a coma during an ill-fated clinical trial.
Teddy suspects that Michelle is secretly a member of an alien race known as the Andromedans, who are destroying Earth’s honeybees and slowly manipulating the human population. Bugonia’s title comes from ancient Greek folklore, which suggests bees can be spontaneously generated from the rotting carcasses of a cow or ox.
Michelle grows increasingly more desperate as Teddy and Don torture her for more information about the Andromedans’ plans to conquer earth. While she initially denies knowing anything about the alien conspiracy theory, Michelle eventually turns the tables on both Teddy and Don with her cunning manipulations.
Bugonia reaches its shocking climax as deputy sheriff Casey Boyd (Stavros Halkias) closes in on Michelle’s whereabouts just as she convinces Teddy to set off a chain of deadly events that could have catastrophic consequences for humanity.
Who Stars in ‘Bugonia’?
Emma Stone gives a tour-de-force performance as Michelle Fuller, a pharmaceutical CEO who is kidnapped by two conspiracy theorists (Jesse Plemons and newcomer Aidan Delbis) and accused of being an alien.
Bugonia features a relatively small cast because it is largely set in Teddy’s makeshift compound. Comedian Stavros Halkias has a supporting role as Teddy’s former babysitter-turned-deputy sheriff Casey Boyd, while Alicia Silverstone appears as Teddy’s comatose mother, Sandy Gatz.
What Are Critics Saying About ‘Bugonia’?
As of publication, Bugonia has an 88 percent critical score and 84 percent audience score via Rotten Tomatoes compared to Poor Things’ 92 percent critical and 80 percent audience scores, respectively.
The New York Times’ Alissa Wilkinson described Bugonia as “ideal casting for Stone” because of her “anime-huge eyes and slightly otherwordly-wide grin.” Jake Coyle wrote for the Associated Press that Bugonia delivers an “unforgettable finale” with an “apocalyptic air of resignation, of fait accompli, [that] sounds a chastening death knell.”
“Bugonia is a hilarious movie with no hope for the future of humanity,” Amy Nicholson declared in the Los Angeles Times. “What optimism there is lies only in the title, an ancient Greek word for the science of transforming dead cows into hives, of turning death into life.”
David Fear of Rolling Stone warned that director Yorgos Lanthimos intended to “inflame and delight” in equal measure with Bugonia, though the critic acknowledged that the film could be “confusing those who don’t recognize that bizarre is the new normal.”
Not all critics were impressed by Bugonia. The Toronto Star’s Adam Nayman dismissed Bugonia as a “a case study in glib nastiness masquerading as satire” while Slate’s Dana Stevens felt its “philosophical grandeur” ultimately was “a disservice to both its characters and its audience.”
What Oscars is ‘Bugonia’ Up For?
Bugonia has earned four Oscar nominations, including Emma Stone competing for her third Best Actress Award against Jessie Buckley (Hamnet), Rose Byrne (If I Had Legs I’d Kick You), Kate Hudson (Song Sung Blue) and Renate Reinsve (Sentimental Value).
The conspiracy thriller is up for Best Picture against F1, Frankenstein, Hamnet, Marty Supreme, One Battle After Another, The Secret Agent, Sentimental Value, Sinners and Train Dreams.
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Writer Will Tracy received a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar nomination and composer Jerskin Fendrix received a nod for Best Original Score.
How Can You Watch ‘Bugonia’?
Bugonia is streaming now via Peacock.
