Robbie Ryan, BSC, ISC has over his career enjoyed lengthy collaborative relationships with notable directors, lensing multiple films for Andrea Arnold, Ken Loach and Yorgos Lanthimos. Ryan’s efforts for the latter have been especially fruitful on the industry awards circuit as The Favourite in 2019 and Poor Things in 2024 each earned Oscar, ASC Award and BAFTA Film Award nominations for the DP. Last month, Ryan’s work on Lanthimos’ Bugonia (Focus Features) made the Cinematography Oscar shortlist. And today (1/9), Bugonia earned inclusion on the BAFTA Film Awards longlist in the Cinematography category.
Bugonia follows two conspiracy-obsessed young men–Teddy (portrayed by Jesse Plemons) and his neurodivergent cousin Donny (Aidan Delbis)–as they burst out of their online rabbit holes and kidnap Michelle (Emma Stone), a high-powered pharmaceutical company CEO they believe to be an alien who has come to conquer Earth and destroy humanity. Michelle is taken to the house where Teddy and Donny live, her head is then shaved and she is chained in the basement. There she tries to talk to her captors–alternately reaching out to them and being defiant–in an attempt to gain freedom. The dialogue between Michelle and Teddy is often ideological but there’s no meeting of minds between them–Michelle is steeped in corporate-speak while Teddy seems to be in the throes of paranoia, and capable of violence. Strangely, though, Teddy doesn’t seem like your garden variety whack job–in fact he even displays some semblance of kindness and decency at times to Michelle and particularly to Donny and a colony of bees in his backyard. Bees, after all, are critical to our ecosystem and the extraterrestrial alien invasion planned by Michelle poses an existential threat to them, according to Teddy.
With a script from Will Tracy that spans dark humor and absurdity on one end and brutal poignancy–coupled with the psychological tension of a surreal sci-fi thriller–on the other, Bugonia under Lanthimos’ direction contains laughter, tears, disbelief and horror all in one. The wild narrative has us questioning who is sane and who isn’t while chronicling a divide among people that in modern-day reality is wide and isolating.
Taking on such an ambitious narrative–encompassing a range which takes us from the great outer space to the microcosm of a bee colony–can be challenging but Lanthimos is able to do so successfully, said Ryan, because he assembles a group of people he trusts. For example, Lanthimos and Ryan enjoy a creative shorthand, not having to explain things to each other. That’s a prime benefit derived from having worked together on four films (Bugonia, Kinds of Kindness, Poor Things and The Favourite). Ryan described Lanthimos as “an extremely visual director” with a special cinematographer’s curiosity. In that respect Ryan quipped that he’s seemingly “always chasing after his coattails,” adding that “I really love the collaboration because I know it will never be boring.” Furthermore Lanthimos, said Ryan, “knows I’m up for the challenge.”
Part of the challenge for Ryan on Bugonia was his and Lanthimos’ decision to shoot on VistaVision cameras–the Wilcam W11 and the Beaucam–in tandem with prototype lenses developed by Panavision’s Dan Sasaki. Ryan recalled that he and Lanthimos experimented with VistaVision on a reanimation sequence in Poor Things. That experience proved helpful for Ryan when taking on a fully VistaVision film in Bugonia. But still there were many adjustments to be made, including several that weren’t anticipated for a vintage technology where the cameras pushes the film horizontally through the gate instead of vertically.
Still, Lanthimos and Ryan felt that it was worth pushing the boundaries of large-format film in order to do justice to the story and acting performances in Bugonia. Ryan assessed, for example, that VistaVision–a format designed in 1954 to help bring people into theaters at a time when television was gaining popularity–offered great detail which helped advance the narrative. “If you relate it to portrait photography, there’s a real lushness to it,” noted Ryan, citing the impact on closeups of the actors–particularly effective in what the DP described as “a chamber piece” set largely in the basement of a house. VistaVision brought a new, interesting visual dimension to the proposition of filming “people talking” in a relatively confined space. The format’s richness yielded a feeling of presence, intimacy and larger-than-life characters.
Ryan noted that the four films he’s shot for Lanthimos all starred Stone. And the cinematographer shared that he never ceases to be amazed by how the two work together. Ryan cited the way that Lanthimos challenges Stone on each film, adding that what he draws out of her is “magical to watch.” Ryan observed it’s not so much how Lanthimos “pushes” but what he “pulls” out of his collaborators. “He kind of pushes you in a way to do your best work and you don’t know that he’s pushing you.” The director has an affinity and talent for getting his collaborators to immerse themselves in a film and its characters, motivating them to do their very best to tell that story.
Among others regularly teaming with Lanthimos, noted Ryan, is Yorgos Mavropsaridis who has edited all of the director’s features thus far. Along the way, Mavropsaridis has picked up a pair of Best Picture Editing Oscar nominations–for The Favourite and Poor Things–as well as three ACE Eddie Award nods, all for Lanthimos films (The Lobster, The Favourite and Poor Things).
Relative to Bugonia, traction has already been gained this awards season with three Golden Globe nominations–Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, and Stone and Plemons for their acting performances–and a trio of Critics Choice Awards nods for Best Picture, Actress (Stone) and Adapted Screenplay (for writer Tracy; Bugonia is loosely based on the 2003 South Korean cult classic film Save the Green Planet, directed and written by Jang Joon-hwan).
Among Ryan’s other notable cinematography credits are The Angels’ Share, Jimmy’s Hall, Sorry We Missed You, and I, Daniel Blake directed by Loach, and the Arnold-helmed Red Road, Fish Tank, Wuthering Heights, American Honey and Bird. Ryan earned a British Independent Film Award in 2016 for his cinematography on American Honey.
This is the ninth installment of SHOOT’s 16-part The Road To Oscar Series of feature stories. Shining a light on such disciplines as directing, cinematography, producing, editing, production design, visual effects and animation, this series will appear weekly all the way through to the Academy Awards gala ceremony. Nominations for the 98th Oscars will be announced on Thursday, January 22, 2026. The 98th Oscars will be held on Sunday, March 15, 2026, at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood in Hollywood, Calif., televised live on ABC and streamed on Hulu.
