Paul Thomas Anderson won the Directors Guild of America's top film prize on Saturday for 'One Battle After Another', a significant Oscar predictor. Accepting the award from DGA President Christopher Nolan, Anderson joked, 'It's an honour, President Nolan,' drawing laughter from the audience at the Beverly Hilton.
This was Anderson's third DGA nomination, following 'Licorice Pizza' in 2021 and 'There Will Be Blood' in 2007. The DGA Theatrical Feature Award has matched the Oscar for Best Director in all but eight years since 1948, and for the past five years consecutively.
Anderson paid an emotional tribute to his close friend, producer and first assistant director Adam Somner, who died in 2024 from thyroid cancer. 'Obviously we are up here, minus one,' Anderson said. 'He took this work so seriously, and did not take himself seriously at all. He made us feel safe.'
Choking up, Anderson added, 'I wish everyone in this room the love that I had with him... He would love this. He'd be so f*cking happy.' Somner's wife, Carmen Ruiz de Huidobro, was in attendance.
Other nominees in the category included Ryan Coogler for 'Sinners', Chloé Zhao for 'Hamnet', Guillermo del Toro for 'Frankenstein', and Josh Safdie for 'Marty Supreme'. Coogler is only the fifth Black director nominated in this category, while Zhao joins Kathryn Bigelow, Jane Campion and Greta Gerwig as the only women with multiple DGA nominations.
