Film

Paul Thomas Anderson’s DGA Win Just Locked Up His First Oscar Win

8 February 2026

The Academy can go ahead and start etching Paul Thomas Anderson‘s name on an Oscar trophy at last, as he’s effectively locked up one major win for One Battle After Another now. Despite making masterpieces like Boogie Nights, Magnolia, There Will Be Blood, and more, PTA entered this awards season with an 0-11 Oscars record hanging over him.

But once One Battle After Another premiered, that seemed destined to change. He’s been a frequent recipient of awards all season long, especially for his direction. Now, it’s happened again: Paul Thomas Anderson won Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Theatrical Feature Film at the 2025 Directors Guild of America Awards. With this win, it should be smooth sailing ahead for him to win the Best Director Oscar.

Paul Thomas Anderson’s DGA Win Keeps Him The Oscars’ Best Director Frontrunner

An Upset Will Be Shocking Now

Bob and Sensei bowing at each other as Sensei gives him his rifle in One Battle After Another

History has shown that winning at DGA is an incredibly accurate indicator of how Best Director will go at the Oscars. Since the category’s inception in 1948, there have only been eight instances where the Oscars and DGA had different director winners.

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’d be a real shock if Anderson suddenly became the ninth director to join this list. He not only has an overdue narrative attached to his campaign and is behind the presumed Best Picture winner, but the DGAs kept his sweep through the major precursors going.

He’s already won the Best Director equivalent categories at the Golden Globes and Critics’ Choice Awards, on top of his DGA win. In the 32 years when the Globes, DGA, and CCA have all handed out Best Director wins, there have been 16 times when they all crowned the same winner. 14 of them went on to win the Oscar.

PTA is the 17th winner of these three awards, and he’s well on his way to being the 15th to cap off awards season with the Academy Award, too.

The DGAs presented Ryan Coogler (Sinners), Chloé Zhao (Hamnet), and others with a chance to steal some of his thunder and firmly show that this race is not over by winning here. The fact that they didn’t just solidifies who is at the top of this race. BAFTA does remain, so a surprise could come, but it could be too late. All signs continue to point to PTA winning the Best Director Oscar.