Paul Thomas Anderson Wins 2026 Golden Globe for Best Director

For Paul Thomas Anderson, it’s One Award After Another: one week after winning the Critics Choice Award for Best Director, the “One Battle After Another” filmmaker has won the Golden Globe for Best Director, paving the way for a potential award season sweep.

The award marked Anderson’s second Golden Globe trophy and his first nomination in the ceremony’s Best Director category; previously, he received a screenplay nomination for “Licorice Pizza” in 2021. Earlier in the night, he won in the Best Screenplay category for the script of “One Battle After Another,” which is loosely inspired and based on the novel “Vineland” by Thomas Pynchon. Also nominated alongside Anderson in the Best Director category were Ryan Coogler for “Sinners,” Guillermo del Toro for “Frankenstein,” Jafar Panahi for “It Was Just An Accident,” Joachim Trier for “Sentimental Value,” and Chloé Zhao for “Hamnet.”

An epic story of revolutionaries that has been noted by many critics to be extremely of the moment, “One Battle After Another” emerged early on in awards season as the presumptive frontrunner, winning Best Picture at the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, National Board of Review, National Society of Film Critics, and New York Film Critics Circle, becoming only the fourth film in history to accomplish this feat. The film — which stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a retired revolutionary who goes on a mission to rescue his daughter (Chase Infiniti) from a white supremacist military officer (Sean Penn) — also won Best Picture at Critics’ Choice and Best Feature at the Gotham Awards.

The film received eight nominations at the Globes: Best Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy, Best Director for Anderson, Best Actor — Musical or Comedy for DiCaprio, Best Actress — Musical or Comedy for Infiniti, two Supporting Actor nods for Penn and Benicio del Toro, Best Supporting Actress for Teyana Taylor, Best Screenplay, and Best Original Score. In addition, it broke the record at the upcoming SAG Actor Awards for most nominations for a single film, with seven nominations, including a Best Ensemble nomination, five individual performance nominations for its cast, and a nod for the stunt team’s work. 

Anderson’s award success for “One Battle After Another” comes after years of nominations with no wins at the Academy Awards. He has been nominated for Best Director three times for “There Will Be Blood,” “Phantom Thread,” and “Licorice Pizza,” and has received eight other nominations for Best Picture or for Screenplay nods. The 2026 Oscar nominations will be announced on January 22, and the ceremony will take place on March 15, where Anderson will hope to finally break that losing streak.

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