Yorgos Lanthimos

Yorgos Lanthimos was born in Athens in 1973. His early directing crossed dance-theatre films, commercials, music videos, short films and stage work. Movement and the arrangement of bodies therefore belong to a professional vocabulary that extends beyond feature-film storytelling. His continuing photography offers another field for framing people, objects and places. The camera can hold attention on an ordinary space until its distances, gestures and pauses begin to feel unfamiliar.

Kinetta appeared in 2005, followed by the Greek-language Dogtooth in 2009 and Alps in 2011. The Lobster in 2015 became his first English-language feature, opening a new production setting while preserving collaborations with Greek artists. Screenwriter Efthimis Filippou and editor Yorgos Mavropsaridis are among the collaborators associated with his work. Later films brought recurring partnerships with performers including Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons. In Greek interviews he has returned to the practical experience of making films: limited resources, changing ideas and the pleasure of working with others. Discussing Bugonia in November 2025, he questioned the idea of complete directorial control. That perspective brings the elaborate screen worlds back to the uncertain, collective process of creating them.

Dogtooth places a Greek-speaking family inside a restricted world where authority shapes even the meanings of words. Its unsettling definitions and everyday routines make language part of the drama. The film won Cannes' Un Certain Regard Prize in 2009. The English-language The Lobster received the Cannes Jury Prize in 2015, using an invented social rule to organize relationships. The Favourite, from 2018, moves into an English-language court setting, where proximity, rivalry and performance become instruments of power.

Poor Things, directed from Tony McNamara's screenplay after Alasdair Gray's novel, won the Golden Lion in 2023. Its visual world combines elaborate sets, costumes, makeup and performance; the 2024 Oscars recognized Emma Stone, production design, costume design and makeup/hairstyling. Kinds of Kindness followed in 2024 as a triptych, with familiar performers taking different roles across its stories; Jesse Plemons received Cannes' acting prize. Bugonia, shown at Venice in 2025, has Will Tracy's screenplay and English dialogue. Across these films, a controlled image, an awkward pause or a startling rule invites the viewer to reconsider what appears normal. Greek-language work and later international productions share that interest while giving it different settings, scales and sounds.

Make two headings, βλέπω and υποθέτω. Describe a short scene in Modern Greek under the first: a door opens, a person waits, someone is silent. Under the second write two possible interpretations using ίσως or μπορεί. Then read a Greek interview and compare your interpretation with what the filmmaker actually says, without requiring them to match. With Dogtooth, check an ordinary noun in a real Greek dictionary rather than learning the fictional definition. Finally compare a Greek release title with the film's original title and soundtrack language. The B 2 grade belongs to the adapted Modern Greek passage, not to every film or interview; fast speech and abstract discussion may need a transcript.

• He was born in Athens in 1973.
• The Lobster was his first English-language feature.
• Dogtooth’s invented definitions are fictional.
• Film awards have named recipients and ceremony dates.