One Battle After Another director Paul Thomas Anderson won top honours at the Directors Guild of America (DGA) Awards in Los Angeles on Saturday night, solidifying his film's position as a strong favourite for the Oscars.
Anderson, whose action-comedy 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 on Sunday, 15 March.
"It's a tremendous honour to be given this," Anderson said upon accepting the award at the gala held at the Beverly Hilton 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.
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.
Watch: The trailer for One Battle After Another
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.
The winner of the DGA Award has been honoured with the Best Director Oscar on all but eight occasions since the 1940s.
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.
The DGA winners in full:
Film
Theatrical Feature Film
Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another
Michael Apted First-Time Theatrical Feature Film
Charlie Polinger, The Plague
Documentary Film
Mstyslav Chernov, 2000 Meters to Andriivka
Television
Drama Series
Amanda Marsalis, The Pitt - 6:00 P.M
Comedy Series
Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, The Studio - The Oner
Limited & Anthology Series
Shannon Murphy, Dying for Sex - It's Not That Serious
Movies for Television
Stephen Chbosky, Nonnas
Variety
Liz Patrick, SNL50: The Anniversary Special
Documentary Series/News
Rebecca Miller, Mr Scorsese
Reality, Quiz & Games
Mike Sweeney, Conan O'Brien Must Go - Austria
Sports
Matthew Gangl, 2025 World Series - Game 7 - Los Angeles Dodgers vs Toronto Blue Jays
Commercial
Kim Gehrig, You Can't Win. So Win - Nike; and I'm Not Remarkable - Apple
Source: AFP
