Paul Thomas Anderson wins top director prize for ‘One Battle After Another’

BEVERLY HILLS: “One Battle After Another” director Paul Thomas Anderson won top honors at the Directors Guild of America Awards in Los Angeles on Saturday, solidifying his film’s position as a strong favorite for the Oscars.

Anderson, whose movie follows a former revolutionary who tries to protect his teenage daughter when the past comes back to haunt him, won the feature-film prize – the award considered a key indicator of what might happen at the Academy Awards, which cap off the Hollywood awards season.

“It’s a tremendous honor to be given this,” Anderson said upon accepting the award at the gala held in Beverly Hills.

“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.

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Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, the film, which depicts a timeless America where white supremacists plot behind the scenes, immigration raids sweep through communities and revolutionary groups take up arms, also won recognition in January at the Critics’ Choice Awards and the Golden Globes.

“One Battle After Another” will enter the Oscars as the second-most-nominated film, with 13 nominations. It is behind only the vampire film “Sinners” directed by Ryan Coogler, which garnered 16 nominations, a record for the Academy Awards.

Coogler was also nominated for the feature-film prize at the Directors Guild Awards.

Anderson received the statuette from Sean Baker, who won last year with his dark comedy “Anora,” which went on to be an Oscar winner.

Twenty of the 22 winners of the Directors Guild Awards have subsequently won the Oscar for best director, including the winners of the last three years: “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” “Oppenheimer” and “Anora.”

Also on Saturday, Oscar-winning Ukrainian filmmaker and journalist Mstyslav Chernov won the award for best documentary film. His film “2000 Meters to Andriivka” follows a Ukrainian platoon on a campaign to liberate a Russian-occupied village and offers a glimpse into the harsh realities of war.

“It’s scary to live in a world where, instead of a camera, you have to get a gun to defend your home, to defend what you believe in,” Chernov said at the event hosted by comedian Kumail Nanjiani.

“I want to thank… every soldier, every civilian, every filmmaker who made a choice to leave the camera for now and get a gun and go and fight so I have a chance,” he added.