Filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson on Saturday won the top prize for his 2025 film One Battle After Another at the Directors Guild of America awards in Los Angeles, as per reports.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the awards ceremony hosted by Kumail Nanjiani from the Beverly Hilton — Paul Thomas Anderson (One Battle After Another), Ryan Coogler (Sinners), Guillermo Del Toro (Frankenstein), Josh Safdie (Marty Supreme) and Chloé Zhao (Hamnet) were up for the top honour in the outstanding directorial achievement in theatrical feature film category.

The top honour usually becomes one of the major hints for the best director category at the Oscars.

Anderson took the trophy home. He took to the stage with his team members and addressed the audience.

“This is an incredible, incredible honor. We’re going to take it with the love that it’s given and the appreciation of all our comrades in this room,” the filmmaker said, but noting “obviously we are up here minus one.”

Anderson then paid tribute to the film’s initial director Adam Somner, who passed away after a battle with cancer in November 2024.

This was the first Directors Guild of America awards ceremony which was presided over by new DGA president, filmmaker Christopher Nolan, who was elected as the director of the organisation in September last year.

One Battle After Another is based on Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 novel Vineland, a postmodern exploration of 1984 California, with flashbacks to the ’60s. This marks Anderson’s second adaptation of Pynchon’s work, following 2014’s Inherent Vice.

One Battle After Another stars Leonardo DiCaprio alongside Sean Penn, Regina Hall, Alana Haim, and Benicio del Toro.