Paul Thoma

Paul Thomas Anderson (born June 26, 1970), also known by his initials PTA, is an American filmmaker. Often described as one of the preeminent filmmakers of his generation, he is the recipient of numerous accolades, including three Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards and four BAFTAs, as well as a nomination for a Grammy Award. He is the only person to have won the Academy Award for Best Direc...

Paul Thomas Anderson (born June 26, 1970), also known by his initials PTA, is an American filmmaker. Often described as one of the preeminent filmmakers of his generation, he is the recipient of numerous accolades, including three Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards and four BAFTAs, as well as a nomination for a Grammy Award. He is the only person to have won the Academy Award for Best Director and directorial prizes at Europe's three major film festivals: Cannes Film Festival, Venice Film Festival, and the Berlin International Film Festival. In addition to those accolades, he won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival. Many of Anderson's films are psychological dramas characterized by depictions of desperate characters and explorations of dysfunctional families, alienation, loneliness, and redemption, alongside a bold visual style that uses constantly moving cameras and long takes. After his directorial debut, Hard Eight (1996), Anderson had critical and commercial success with Boogie Nights (1997), and received further accolades with Magnolia (1999) and Punch-Drunk Love (2002). There Will Be Blood (2007), Anderson's fifth film, is regarded as one of the greatest films of the 21st century. It was followed by The Master (2012) and Inherent Vice (2014), an adaptation of the 2009 novel by Thomas Pynchon. Anderson's next three films, Phantom Thread (2017), Licorice Pizza (2021) and One Battle After Another (2025) were all nominated for the Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director, while the last earned him wins for both and Best Adapted Screenplay and became his highest-grossing film. Anderson is noted for his collaborations with the cinematographer Robert Elswit, the costume designer Mark Bridges, the composers Jon Brion and Jonny Greenwood, and actors including Philip Seymour Hoffman, Daniel Day-Lewis, John C. Reilly, and Joaquin Phoenix. He has directed music videos for artists including Fiona Apple, Haim, Aimee Mann, Joanna Newsom, Michael Penn, Radiohead, and the Smile. He also directed a 2015 documentary about Greenwood's album Junun, and the short music film Anima (2019) for the Radiohead singer Thom Yorke. Early life Paul Thomas Anderson was born in Studio City, Los Angeles, on June 26, 1970, to Edwina (née Gough) and media personality Ernie Anderson. His father was the voice of ABC and played a Cleveland late-night horror host known as Ghoulardi, after which name Anderson later named his production company. Paul Thomas Anderson has three siblings and five half-siblings from his father's first marriage. He grew up in the San Fernando Valley in a Catholic family. Anderson had a troubled relationship with his mother, and was closer with his father, who encouraged him to become a writer or director. He attended private schools including the Buckley School, John Thomas Dye School, Campbell Hall School, Cushing Academy, and Montclair College Preparatory School. Anderson was involved in filmmaking from an early age, and never had an alternative plan to directing films. He made his first film when he was eight years old, and started making films on a Betamax videocamera his father bought in 1982. He later started using 8 mm film but realized that working with video was easier. As a teenager, he began writing and experimenting with a Bolex 16 mm camera. After years of experimenting with "standard fare", Anderson wrote and filmed his first real production as a senior at Montclair Prep, using money he earned cleaning cages at a pet store. The film was a 30-minute mockumentary about a porn star, The Dirk Diggler Story (1988), with a story inspired by John Holmes, who also inspired Boogie Nights (1997), the feature-length adaptation of The Dirk Diggler Story. Career 1990s Anderson attended Santa Monica College before spending two semesters as an English major at Emerson College, where he was taught by David Foster Wallace. Anderson attended New York University. For his first film school assignment he was tasked with writing a single page screenplay and Anderson decided to turn in a page from the screenplay for the film Hoffa which was written by Pulitzer Prize winner David Mamet. After receiving a C+ for the assignment Anderson realised that film school was not for him and dropped out after two days. He began his career as a production assistant on television, films, music videos, and game shows in Los Angeles and New York City. Feeling that film school turned the material into "homework or a chore", Anderson decided to make a 20-minute film as his "college". On a budget of $10,000 (which came from gambling winnings, his girlfriend's credit card, and money his father had set aside for him for college), Anderson made Cigarettes & Coffee (1993), a short film connecting multiple storylines with a $20 bill. It screened at the 1993 Sundance Festival Shorts Program. He planned to expand it to feature-length, and was invited to the 1994 Sundance Feature Film Program. Michael Caton-Jones served as Anderson's mentor. He saw him as someone with "talent and a fully formed creative voice, but not much hands-on experience", and gave him some hard and practical lessons. While at Sundance, Anderson had a deal with Rysher Entertainment to direct his first full-length feature film, Sydney, which was retitled Hard Eight. After he finished the film, Rysher reedited it. He had the workprint of the original cut and submitted the film to the 1996 Cannes Film Festival, where it was shown at the Un Certain Regard section. He had the version released, but only after he retitled the film, and raised the $200,000 necessary to finish it. Anderson, Philip Baker Hall, John C. Reilly, and Gwyneth Paltrow contributed to the final funding. The version that was released was Anderson's and the acclaim it received launched his career. The film follows the life of a senior gambler and a homeless man. In his review, Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert wrote, "Movies like Hard Eight remind me of what original, compelling characters the movies can sometimes give us." Anderson worked on the script for his second film while working on the first one, and completed it in 1995. The result was his breakout film Boogie Nights (1997), which is based on his short film The Dirk Diggler Story and is set in the Golden Age of Porn. The film follows a nightclub dishwasher who becomes a pornographic actor. The script was noticed by New Line Cinema president Michael De Luca, who felt "totally gaga" reading it. It was released on October 10, 1997, and was a critical and commercial success. It revived the career of Burt Reynolds, and provided breakout roles for Mark Wahlberg and Julianne Moore. At the 70th Academy Awards, the film was nominated for three awards, including Best Supporting Actor (Reynolds), Best Supporting Actress (Moore), and Best Original Screenplay. After the success of Boogie Nights, New Line told Anderson he could do whatever he wanted for his next film and granted him creative control. Anderson initially wanted to make a film that was "intimate and small-scale", but the script "kept blossoming". The result was the ensemble piece Magnolia (1999), which tells the story of the peculiar interaction of several people in San Fernando Valley. It was inspired by the music of the singer-songwriter Aimee Mann, who wrote songs for its soundtrack. At the 72nd Academy Awards, Magnolia was nominated for three awards, including Best Supporting Actor (Tom Cruise), Best Original Song ("Save Me"), and Best Original Screenplay. After its release, Anderson said, "Magnolia is, for better or worse, the best movie I'll ever make". 2000s After the success of Magnolia, Anderson said he would make his next film around 90 minutes and would work with Adam Sandler. Punch-Drunk Love (2002) follows a beleaguered entrepreneur in love with his sister's co-worker. A subplot was inspired by civil engineer David Phillips. Sandler received critical praise for his first dramatic role in the film. At the 2002 Cannes Film Festival, Anderson won the Best Director Award and was nominated for the Palme d'Or. Time Out included it among the best films of the 21st century. Karina Longworth wrote, "Anderson's cracked ode to the transformative power of love in a world that actively mocks sensitivity is perhaps his most original work". There Will Be Blood (2007), Anderson's fifth film, is loosely based on Upton Sinclair's 1927 novel Oil! It follows a ruthless oil prospector exploiting the Southern California oil boom in the early 20th century. Against a $25 million budget, the film earned $76.1 million worldwide. At the 80th Academy Awards, it was nominated for eight awards, tying with No Country for Old Men. Anderson was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay, losing all three to the Coen Brothers for No Country for Old Men. Daniel Day-Lewis won Best Actor and Robert Elswit won Best Cinematography. Paul Dano received a nomination for the BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor. Anderson was nominated for the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Feature Film. There Will Be Blood was regarded by some critics as one of the greatest films of the decade, with some further declaring it one of the most accomplished American films of the modern era. David Denby of The New Yorker wrote, "Anderson has now done work that bears comparison to the greatest achievements of Griffith and Ford", while Richard Schickel proclaimed it "one of the most wholly original American movies ever made." In 2017, New York Times film critics A. O. Scott and Manohla Dargis named it the "Best Film of the 21st Century So Far". 2010s In December 2009, Anderson worked on a new film about a "charismatic intellectual" starting a new religion in the 1950s. An associate of Anderson's stated that the idea for the film had been in his mind for twelve years. The Master was released on September 14, 2012, in North America, and received critical acclaim. The film follows an alcoholic World War II veteran, who meets the leader of a religious organization. Though the film does not refer to the movement, it has "long been widely assumed to be based on Scientology." At the 85th Academy Awards, the film was nominated for three awards, including for Best Actor (Joaquin Phoenix), Best Supporting Actor (Hoffman) and Best Supporting Actress (Amy Adams). Production of the film adaptation for Thomas Pynchon's novel Inherent Vice began in May and ended in August 2013. The film marked the first time that Pynchon allowed his work to be adapted for the screen, and had Anderson work with Phoenix for a second time. The supporting cast includes Owen Wilson, Reese Witherspoon, Jena Malone, Martin Short, Benicio Del Toro, Katherine Waterston and Josh Brolin. Following its release in December 2014, the film was nominated for two awards at the 87th Academy Awards, including for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Costume Design. Anderson directed Junun, a 2015 documentary about the making of the album by the composer and Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood, the Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich, the Israeli composer Shye Ben Tzur, and a group of Indian musicians. Most of the performances were recorded at the 15th-century Mehrangarh Fort in Rajasthan. Junun premiered at the 2015 New York Film Festival to a generally favorable reception. Anderson's eighth film, Phantom Thread, set in the London fashion industry, was released in December 2017. Day-Lewis starred, after his previous film Lincoln. The cast includes Lesley Manville and Vicky Krieps. Focus Features distributed the film in the United States, with Universal Pictures handling international distribution. Principal photography began in January 2017. Elswit was absent during production, and despite claims of Anderson acting as a cinematographer on the film, no official credit was given. On February 16, 2019, Elswit said he would not work with Anderson on his next films. Phantom Threa