Paul Thomas Anderson’s ‘One Battle After Another’ wins DGA Award, a key Oscars predictor, as the film enters the Academy Awards with 13 nominations
BEVERLY HILLS: Paul Thomas Anderson won the top feature-film prize at the Directors Guild of America Awards on Saturday. His film ‘One Battle After Another’ is now a strong favourite for the upcoming Oscars.
The award is considered a key indicator of success at the Academy Awards. “It’s a tremendous honor to be given this,” Anderson said upon accepting the award.
“We’re going to take it with the love that it’s given and the appreciation of all our comrades in this room,” he added. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio and follows a former revolutionary protecting his daughter.
It depicts an America where white supremacists plot, immigration raids occur, and revolutionary groups take up arms. The film has already won recognition at the Critics’ Choice Awards and the Golden Globes.
It enters the Oscars with 13 nominations, the second-most of any film. Only Ryan Coogler’s vampire film ‘Sinners’, with a record 16 nominations, has more.
Coogler was also nominated for the DGA’s feature-film prize. Anderson received the statuette from last year’s winner, Sean Baker.
Twenty of the last 22 DGA winners have gone on to win the Oscar for best director. This includes the winners of the last three years.
In the documentary category, Oscar-winning Ukrainian filmmaker Mstyslav Chernov won for ‘2000 Meters to Andriivka’. The film follows a Ukrainian platoon fighting to liberate a Russian-occupied village.
“It’s scary to live in a world where, instead of a camera, you have to get a gun to defend your home,” Chernov said at the event. He thanked every soldier and civilian who has taken up arms to fight.