Paul Thomas Anderson Wins Directors Guild Award for ‘One Battle After Another’
Paul Thomas Anderson won the Directors Guild of America’s feature-film prize for One Battle After Another at the Beverly Hilton on Saturday night. After earning 14 Oscar nominations without a win, he now looks closer than ever to Oscar gold; 18 of the previous 20 DGA winners went on to claim the directing Oscar.
In his acceptance speech he said "We are up here minus one," praised the late assistant director Adam Somner and recalled "the love I had with him." The other DGA nominees were Ryan Coogler (Sinners), Guillermo del Toro (Frankenstein), Josh Safdie (Marty Supreme) and Chloé Zhao (Hamnet).
At the Oscars the field is the same except that Guillermo del Toro is replaced by Joachim Trier for Sentimental Value. One Battle After Another has taken the top prize at the Gotham Awards, the Critics Choice Awards and the Golden Globes and is widely considered the front-runner for best-picture.