TLDR: During a BFI London Film Festival talk, acclaimed director Yorgos Lanthimos humorously expressed his weariness with the extensive film promotion cycle, joking about deploying an AI avatar to handle repetitive interviews for his new film ‘Bugonia’.
Acclaimed filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos, known for his distinctive cinematic style, recently sparked laughter at the BFI London Film Festival by jokingly proposing the use of an AI avatar to circumvent the demanding grind of film promotion. The director, whose latest thriller ‘Bugonia’ premiered at the festival, expressed a palpable fatigue with the relentless cycle of interviews and press events that accompany a film’s release.
Speaking on Saturday, October 11, 2025, during a special session with ‘Succession’ creator Jesse Armstrong, Lanthimos candidly shared his sentiments about the repetitive nature of promotional duties. He questioned the necessity of reiterating the same information countless times, highlighting the extensive time commitment involved, which he noted can feel as long as the filmmaking process itself. The conversation, which also touched upon filmmaking, politics, and the commercial pressures faced by directors, saw Lanthimos acknowledge the producers’ need to recoup their investments.
As the audience erupted in laughter, Lanthimos quipped, ‘I mean, AI… I’ll make an avatar and send it out. That sounds really opposite to my beliefs [about AI]!’ Armstrong, quick with a retort, playfully responded, ‘First you want a dictatorship and now you want an AI version of yourself to talk about your films,’ referencing an earlier part of their discussion where Lanthimos had humorously suggested the world might benefit from a benevolent dictator. This lighthearted exchange underscored the director’s desire for a more efficient, less taxing approach to film publicity.
Lanthimos’s new film, ‘Bugonia,’ stars Emma Stone as a powerful CEO who is kidnapped by two conspiracy theorists, played by Jesse Plemons and Aidan Delbis, convinced she is an alien poised to destroy Earth. Stone’s performance in ‘Bugonia’ is already generating significant awards buzz, just two years after her Oscar win for Lanthimos’s ‘Poor Things.’ The BFI London Film Festival 2025 is scheduled to run from October 8 to 19.
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While Lanthimos’s suggestion was made in jest, it taps into a broader conversation within the entertainment industry about the potential role of artificial intelligence in various aspects of production and promotion. The idea of AI-generated personas handling routine tasks, even if currently a futuristic concept, reflects a growing curiosity about how technology might alleviate some of the more mundane or repetitive demands on creative professionals.
