It looks like Paul Thomas Anderson is finally going to win an Oscar! He’s almost guaranteed to take home a trophy for his latest film, One Battle After Another. Despite creating critically acclaimed movies like Boogie Nights, Magnolia, and There Will Be Blood, Anderson had previously gone 0 for 11 at the Oscars.
After the release of One Battle After Another, Paul Thomas Anderson’s success began to surge, and he’s been consistently recognized with awards for his directing work this season. He’s now added another honor to his collection: he won Outstanding Directorial Achievement for a Theatrical Feature Film at the 2025 Directors Guild of America Awards. This win significantly increases his chances of winning the Best Director Oscar.
Paul Thomas Anderson’s DGA Win Keeps Him The Oscars’ Best Director Frontrunner
An Upset Will Be Shocking Now
Throughout history, the Director Guild of America (DGA) award winner has almost always gone on to win the Best Director Oscar. Since the DGA award began in 1948, there have been only eight times when a different director won the Oscar.
- 1968: Anthony Harvey (The Lion in Winter) won the DGA; Carol Reed (Oliver!) won the Oscar
- 1972: Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather) won the DGA; Bob Fosse (Cabaret) won the Oscar
- 1985: Steven Spielberg (The Color Purple) won the DGA; Sydney Pollack (Out of Africa) won the Oscar
- 1995: Ron Howard (Apollo 13) won the DGA; Mel Gibson (Braveheart) won the Oscar
- 2000: Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) won the DGA; Steven Soderbergh (Traffic) won the Oscar
- 2002: Rob Marshall (Chicago) won the DGA; Roman Polanski (The Pianist) won the Oscar
- 2012: Ben Affleck (Argo) won the DGA; Ang Lee (Life of Pi) won the Oscar
- 2019: Sam Mendes (1917) won the DGA; Bong Joon-ho (Parasite) won the Oscar
It would be surprising if Anderson became the ninth director added to this list. He’s considered a strong contender, especially given the momentum his film has gained and the fact that he recently won a Directors Guild Award, continuing a pattern of wins leading up to the Oscars.
He’s already received Best Director awards from the Golden Globes, Critics’ Choice, and the Directors Guild of America. Historically, when all three of these awards have gone to the same director – which has happened 16 times in the last 32 years – that director has usually gone on to win the Oscar, happening in 14 of those instances.
PTA is the seventeenth recipient of these three awards, and he’s currently poised to become the fifteenth winner to complete awards season with an Academy Award.
As a huge cinema fan, I was really watching the DGAs, and while directors like Ryan Coogler and Chloé Zhao had a shot at shaking things up, the results pretty much confirmed who’s leading the Best Director race. BAFTA could still throw a curveball, but honestly, it feels like Paul Thomas Anderson is almost guaranteed to win the Oscar at this point. Everything’s pointing that way!
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2026-02-08 08:48