Yorgos Lanthimos

Georgios "Yorgos" Lanthimos (Greek: Γιώργος Λάνθιμος, Giorgos Lanthimos; born 23 September 1973) is a Greek film and stage director, producer, and screenwriter. He has received four Academy Award nominations for his work, including Best Foreign Language Film for Dogtooth, Best Original Screenplay for The Lobster (2015), and Best Picture and Best Director for The Favourite (2018).

Lanthimos was born in Pangrati, Athens. He was raised mainly by his mother. His father, Antonis Lanthimos, was a professional basketball player who played for Pagrati B.C., Greece national basketball team and was also a basketball instructor at the Moraitis School. Having graduated from the Moraitis School he went on to study business administration and played for a period in Pagrati B.C. He eventually dropped out and went on to study directing for film and television at the Hellenic Cinema and Television School Stavrakos (HCTSS) in Athens.

Through the 1990s Lanthimos directed a series of videos for Greek dance-theater companies. Since 1995 he has directed a large number of TV commercials, in addition to music videos, short films and experimental theater plays. He was also a member of the creative team which designed the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.

Lanthimos' feature film career started with the mainstream film My Best Friend where he shared directing credits with Lakis Lazopoulos and was followed by the experimental film Kinetta which premiered at the 2005 Toronto Film Festival. His third feature film Dogtooth won the Prix Un Certain Regard at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 83rd Academy Awards. In 2010, he acted and co-produced Attenberg a Greek drama film directed by Athina Rachel Tsangari. His fourth feature film Alps (2011) won the Osella Award for Best Screenplay at the 68th Venice International Film Festival.

The script for Lanthimos' fifth film The Lobster was awarded with the ARTE International Award as Best CineMart Project for 2013 at the 42nd International Film Festival Rotterdam. The film was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival and won the Jury Prize. During the 75th Venice Film Festival, he presented his latest work The Favourite (2018), and won the Grand Jury Prize. The film tied for the most nominations at 91st Academy Awards, with ten, including Best Picture and Best Director for Lanthimos.

In 2019, it was reported that Lanthimos was working on an adaptation of the Jim Thompson 1964 novel Pop. 1280, which he is set to write and direct.

Lanthimos is married to Greek-born French actress Ariane Labed.

In 2019, Yorgos Lanthimos received the Award for Cinematic Production and Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society.