The China Mail - Paul Thomas Anderson: eclectic filmmaker, critical darling

The Los Angeles native has long been a critical darling, with a raft of previous Academy Award nominations dating back to his breakout film "Boogie Nights" and including his last feature "Licorice Pizza."

But "One Battle After Another" -- with an all-star cast including Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro and Teyana Taylor -- has proved unstoppable during awards season.

Anderson also took home the Academy Award for best adapted screenplay and shared the Oscar for best picture as a producer.

"I'm so happy to call the movies home," Anderson told the audience.

With "One Battle After Another" a quirky tale about a pot-addled revolutionary who must get back into the game to rescue his daughter, the 55-year-old Anderson bested Chloe Zhao for "Hamnet," Josh Safdie for "Marty Supreme," Joachim Trier for "Sentimental Value" and Ryan Coogler for "Sinners."

The filmmaker had already won a BAFTA, a Critics Choice Award, a Golden Globe and a Directors Guild Award in the run-up to the Academy Awards.

- 'Boogie Nights' breakthrough -

Born in the Studio City neighborhood of Los Angeles in 1970, Anderson grew up in California and studied at New York University before dropping out after a single semester.

By then, Anderson had already developed a strong interest in film, having made a 30-minute mockumentary about a male porn star during high school.

The subject of the film would form the inspiration for his 1997 breakthrough movie "Boogie Nights," often described as the best big-screen depiction of the porn industry, which earned Anderson his first Oscar nomination for best original screenplay.

The film also garnered an Oscar nod for Julianne Moore and burnished the reputations of a crop of young actors who subsequently went on to great success including Mark Wahlberg, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Don Cheadle and John C. Reilly.

Anderson followed "Boogie Nights" with the 1999 drama "Magnolia," which skillfully interweaves the lives of several people living in the San Fernando Valley suburbs of Los Angeles.

The film -- which earned Anderson another Oscars nod for best original screenplay, and an acting nomination for Tom Cruise -- famously featured a bizarre biblical twist in which the sky suddenly rains down thousands of exploding frogs.

The quirky 2002 rom-com "Punch-Drunk Love" followed, starring Adam Sandler as a hapless small business owner who falls for his sister's co-worker (Emily Watson).

While the film was a critical hit, it flopped at the box office, recouping only $17 million against a $25 million budget.

As a result, Anderson had trouble raising funding for his next film "There Will Be Blood," based on Upton Sinclair's 1927 book "Oil!" and shot in Texas for a budget of around $25 million.

But it ended up with eight Oscar nominations and two statuettes -- for best actor Daniel Day-Lewis and best cinematography.

- Loyal company of actors -

Perhaps due to his habit of creating roles for his stars that result in critical accolades, several of Anderson's movies have seen him reunite with a stable of revered actors.

Anderson teamed up again with Hoffman for 1950s-set "The Master," which centered on a Scientology-inspired nascent cult called "The Cause." All three lead actors -- Hoffman, Joaquin Phoenix and Amy Adams -- were nominated for Oscars.

Phoenix then worked again with Anderson on "Inherent Vice," the first-ever screen adaptation of a Thomas Pynchon novel. The 1970s-set Los Angeles detective noir earned Anderson an adapted screenplay Oscar nomination.

And in 2017, Day-Lewis returned for "Phantom Thread."

The fashion drama set in 1950s London earned Day-Lewis his third best actor Oscar.

Anderson tapped into a different talent pool for "Licorice Pizza," his nostalgic 1970s love letter to the San Fernando Valley.

Anderson earned his third directing nomination for the film -- after "There Will Be Blood" and "Phantom Thread" -- along with best picture and screenplay nods, but came away empty-handed from the 2022 ceremony.

Away from the screen, Anderson's partner is actress and comedian Maya Rudolph. The couple has four children.

R.Lin--ThChM