€250,000 budget for Dogtooth
Dogtooth was made for roughly €250,000 with about 10 friends, most of whom worked for free or for very little money.
Snapshot · The Louis Theroux Podcast
S7 EP8: Yorgos Lanthimos discusses working with Emma Stone, suffering for his art, and directing a Bourne movie
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Apr 20, 2026
Where this was said
Origin Story: Greek Film School, No Industry, and 10,000 Hours in Ads
At 17:03 · chapter starts 16:45
Lanthimos traces his path from a childhood watching Indiana Jones and Back to the Future through a small private film school in Athens where he discovered Tarkovsky, Bresson, Cassavetes, and Buñuel. He entered advertising because it was the only viable career adjacent to filmmaking in a country where the concept of being a filmmaker barely existed — a handful of established directors like Theo Angelopoulos had a lock on the Greek Film Center's resources. The advertising boom of the early 2000s, fuelled by mobile phone companies and cheap bank loans, gave Lanthimos years of intensive commercial work — sometimes a commercial a week — which Louis compares to the Malcolm Gladwell 10,000-hour rule. [1] — Yorgos Lanthimos "Before his debut features, Lanthimos spent years directing at least one commercial per week in Athens. Louis Theroux compares it to the Mal…" 20:05 By the time Lanthimos and his friends decided to make Dogtooth with €250,000 and no infrastructure, he already had complete technical command of the craft.
Greek film budget boom before 2009 crisis
An advertising boom fuelled by mobile phone companies and cheap bank loans inflated the Greek economy before the 2009 financial crisis, which Lanthimos credits with funding his early commercial work.
How Lanthimos Built His Craft: 10,000 Hours in Advertising
Before his debut features, Lanthimos spent years directing at least one commercial per week in Athens. Louis Theroux compares it to the Malcolm Gladwell 10,000-hour rule: Lanthimos mastered technical filmmaking in the commercial world, then applied that accumulated expertise to making features with almost no money.
Commercial a week for years
Lanthimos directed at least one commercial a week for several years before moving into feature films, giving him a deep technical grounding.
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