Paul Thomas Anderson Wins Directors Guild of America’s Top Prize for His Work on One Battle After Another
Paul Thomas Anderson Takes Top DGA Film Award
Paul Thomas Anderson has won the coveted Directors Guild of America (DGA) film award for his work on One Battle After Another over Ryan Coogler for Sinners.
Paul Thomas Anderson has received the DGA (Directors Guild of America)’s top prize for his star-studded road movie, One Battle After Another. It was a fight that most likely came down to Anderson and Ryan Coogler (Sinners), but Anderson won and emerged victorious. Anderson and One Battle After Another did win at a few other recent ceremonies, including the Critics Choice Awards and the Golden Globes. Though some industry insiders predict Sinners to win the Oscar for Best Picture, it is now clear that Anderson is the major contender to beat when it comes down to the Best Director category and it will be something of a battle for anyone, including Coogler, to take Anderson down at the Academy Awards ceremony that is coming up in mid-March.
One Battle After Another stars Leonardo DiCaprio in an Oscar-nominated leading turn as a man searching for his daughter (played by Chase Infiniti who was snubbed for Best Actress/Best Supporting Actress at the Oscar nominations this year). This Anderson-directed film also features Oscar-nod worthy turns from Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro and Teyana Taylor, all of whom received acting nominations from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for their stellar work in the film. The renowned Penn is a dark horse candidate to win Best Supporting Actor while Taylor is is one of the two front-runners to potentially win Best Supporting Actress (Amy Madigan of Weapons is the other).
In the Michael Apted First-Time Theatrical Feature Film category, Charlie Polinger took the DGA’s prize for his work on the creepy horror film about bullying, The Plague. While there was no denying the directing of that movie was spellbinding, the film itself was rather dark in tone and not an easy watch at all for general movie-goers. Polinger’s creative style went far, however with the DGA and the filmmaker scored a major victory tonight. Eva Victor had been a hopeful contender to win in this category as she was nominated for her work on the brilliant Sundance indie from last year, Sorry Baby. That film currently carries a 97% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes which is the same rating that The Plague is currently at on the RT review site.
Stephen Chbosky won the Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Movies for Television for his work on the great little film that could, Nonnas, which starred Vince Vaughn as a man struggling to keep his dream restaurant afloat. It was a truly inspired picture and this was a win that felt well-deserved.
The Oscar race for Best Picture still seems to be a possible “battle” between Sinners and One Battle After Another although Anderson’s film is, quite clearly, most likely going to win the Best Director category at the Academy Awards with this new victory under its belt. That is unless there’s a major upset which would be quite rare, but given the precursor awards that Anderson has gathered thus far during the awards season, he is the probable winner although Coogler cannot exactly be ruled out entirely. Other filmmakers nominated for the DGA’s theatrical central film directing award this year were Chloé Zhao, Josh Safdie and Gulllermo del Toro, the directors of Hamnet, Marty Supreme and Frankenstein.
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