A Wild Oscar Season Results in Paul Thomas Anderson and ‘One Battle After Another’ Emerging Victorious

In the end, it was always Paul Thomas Anderson‘s One Battle After Another, wasn’t it? One of the lessons of a long Oscar season like this one is that, when things get boring for people, they like to stir the race up. This isn’t to suggest that the momentum and surge of support for Sinners wasn’t real, or that it didn’t come likely within an eyelash of winning, but that it closed the race more so than ultimately changed it, at least in Best Picture. Today, I want to look at the road that Anderson’s film went on, much like I did last year here with Anora.

The road for the film began while skipping the fall festival season entirely. That’s not how most movies begin a march to Oscar glory. In fact, I distinctly remember the very first of the early screening invites going out for the flick while many of us were at the Toronto International Film Festival, with the screening actually taking place while myself and lots of others would still be at TIFF. Was this a sign that One Battle After Another was secretly bad and being hidden? Of course not, but the odd timing did lead to some hushed murmuring about just such a thing. I’d heard from a person or two who had seen it even earlier, for…reasons, so I knew that wasn’t the cast, but still, it was a strange start to what would ultimately be a fairly dominant run.

In fact, when I saw the movie, a week or so later, it turned out to be magnificent. My four star rave review here on the site began like so:

If there was ever a doubt that Paul Thomas Anderson is a master filmmaker, let One Battle After Another settle that for good. This movie is a full cinematic meal, with PTA at the height of his powers. Not only is he crafting his first blockbuster sized project, he’s doing it in a way that mixes screwball comedy with timely political commentary. In lesser hands, this film could have seemed like a tonal mishmash, fusing together a thriller and a chase flick with stoner comedy moments. Instead, each element raises up the other. Anderson has crafted one of the very best pictures of the year, one that immediately enters into the conversation of his best work to date.

One Battle After Another finds PTA at his largest scale yet, though somehow also at his most entertaining as well. Despite massive stakes, a body count, and a deep rooted anger within it, you’re also constantly laughing and smiling. There are moments that are as funny as anything he’s ever done, while others are as heavy as anything he’s ever done. It’s only the rare master craftsman who can make it all seem this effortless.

Once the movie screened to raves, it wasn’t long before the precursor season began. Phase One is where a contender can cement themselves as something that Academy members need to at least pay attention to. The flick didn’t have any issue with that, as it went on an early precursor run that was as good, or better, than any early frontrunner in recent memory. Critics Groups all over the nation, and beyond, gave it top prizes, while establishing Anderson as the one to beat in Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.

The precursors also managed to showcase not just that presumed players Leonardo DiCaprio in Best Actor and Sean Penn in Best Supporting Actor (more on him later) would be forces to reckon with, we saw Benicio del Toro temporarily supplant Penn as the main play in Supporting Actor, while newcomer Chase Infiniti score enough love to seem like a legitimate Best Actress candidate. As one precursor after another embraced it, a frontrunner narrative was born.

Going into Oscar nomination morning, the only thing that was stopping it from leading the pack and feeling like another coronation was in the cards happened to be its fellow Warner Bros. release, Sinners. There was a sense that, as Ryan Coogler‘s film showed up in the next most precursors to Anderson’s, that the movie could jump up to score the most nominations. That obviously happened, to a record-breaking degree, in fact, though somewhat lost in the shuffle was that One Battle After Another was one citation away from tying the all-time record itself. That should have been a sign, though both flicks could emerge from the nominations feeling like things were in their favor, and rightly so.

The Sinners love seemed to cement things as a two horse race, with potential genre bias keeping it closer to the next in line Hamnet than the pole position. That Hamnet beat Sinners at the Golden Globes in Best Motion Picture – Drama, while One Battle After Another waltzed to a win in the Musical or Comedy field also seemed to widen the gap. It obviously wouldn’t remain, but as much as the two horse race situation felt firm, an upset did not seem to be brewing, at least then.

Phase Two hinged on the Guilds, which is where things got interesting. BAFTA, DGA, and PGA went for One Battle After Another and/or PTA in their big fields, which is a winning formula. However, SAG Actor went to Sinners (WGA went to both), while there was a genuine sense in the industry that last minute favor was moving to Coogler’s effort. Michael B. Jordan upsetting Marty Supreme‘s Timothée Chalamet at SAG, while Wunmi Mosaku surprised at BAFTA also pointed to this, though it’s distinctly possible Chalamet’s momentum just ran out earlier than expected, paving the way for Jordan to become a clear Best Actor winner.

Finally, last night, it was the 98th Oscars, where Picture felt like a toss-up. I had predicted each to end up with five wins, though with One Battle After Another taking the top prize. Interestingly, they both wound up beating each other in unexpected ways, leading to One Battle After Another with six wins to Sinners‘ four. Penn held off Delroy Lindo in Supporting Actor, for example, and One Battle After Another took the inaugural Best Casting Oscar, though Sinners made history in Best Cinematography with the first female winner of that category in Autumn Durald Arkapaw. Once Anderson won Director, it felt like close to a done deal, but it wasn’t until the card was read that we knew the actual result. It probably was always going to be that way, but a wild and winding precursor season gave us some real excitement.

So, we now live in a world where PTA has three Academy Awards. That’s very cool, to be sure. We also live in a world where Coogler got a horror flick to set records, win major Oscars, and really change the game for awards season. All of that is wonderful. Overall, it means, for me, at least, that the 98th Oscars were a rousing success. One Battle After Another joins the history books, though Sinners is right behind it, too. There were no losers this year, in my eyes. Huzzah!

Congrats to Paul Thomas Anderson and One Battle After Another!