Known for Directing
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 three Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, four BAFTAs, three Critics Choice Awards, and nominations for a Grammy. He is the only person to have won the Academy Award for Best Director, as well as the Best Director Awards at the 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. Description above from the Wikipedia article Paul Thomas Anderson, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Born
June 26, 1970 (age 56)
Birthplace
Studio City, California, USA
Filmography
76 films, 6 shows


Cameron Winter at Carnegie Hall
2026 · 1h 15m
country: United States
A concert film documenting Cameron Winter's sold-out performance at Carnegie Hall.


One Battle After Another
2025 · 2h 42m
country: United States
Washed-up revolutionary Bob exists in a state of stoned paranoia, surviving off-grid with his spirited, self-reliant daughter, Willa. When his evil nemesis resurfaces after 16 years and she goes missing, the former radical scrambles to find her, father and daughter both battling the consequences of his past.


Licorice Pizza
2021 · 2h 13m
country: Canada
The story of Gary Valentine and Alana Kane growing up, running around and going through the treacherous navigation of first love in the San Fernando Valley, 1973.


Anima
2019 · 15m
country: United States
In a short musical film directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, Thom Yorke of Radiohead stars in a mind-bending visual piece. Best played loud.


Phantom Thread
2017 · 2h 10m
country: United States
In 1950s London, a renowned dressmaker's meticulous lifestyle begins drastically changing as his relationship with his young muse intensifies.


HAIM / Valentine
2017 · 14m
country: United States
Three songs by American pop rock trio Haim, shot live at LA's Valentine Recording Studios, making the 2017 album 'Something to Tell You'.
Daydreaming
Daydreaming
2016 · 6m
country: Unknown
Music video of the song 'Daydreaming' by radiohead


Junun
2015 · 54m
country: United States
A documentary capturing the creation of the album Junun inside Rajasthan’s 15th-century Mehrangarh Fort. Paul Thomas Anderson follows Jonny Greenwood, Shye Ben Tzur, Nigel Godrich, and the Rajasthan Express as they record a cross-cultural fusion of Indian, Israeli, and Western music.


Inherent Vice
2014 · 2h 29m
country: United States
In Los Angeles at the turn of the 1970s, drug-fueled detective Larry "Doc" Sportello investigates the disappearance of an ex-girlfriend.


The Master
2012 · 2h 17m
country: United States
Freddie, a volatile, heavy-drinking veteran who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, finds some semblance of a family when he stumbles onto the ship of Lancaster Dodd, the charismatic leader of a new "religion" he forms after World War II.


There Will Be Blood
2007 · 2h 38m
country: United States
Ruthless silver miner, turned oil prospector, Daniel Plainview, moves to oil-rich California. Using his son to project a trustworthy, family-man image, Plainview cons local landowners into selling him their valuable properties for a pittance. However, local preacher Eli Sunday suspects Plainview's motives and intentions, starting a slow-burning feud that threatens both their lives.


Mattress Man Commercial
2003 · 1m
country: United States
Paul Thomas Anderson spoofs the famous 1980s Mattress Man commercial outtake using Dean Trumbell, the character played by Philip Seymour Hoffman in Anderson's 'Punch-Drunk Love,’ as he promotes his mattress company by performing a stunt that doesn't go all that well.
12 Scopitones
12 Scopitones
2003 · 7m
country: United States
12 artwork transitions by Jeremy Blake for the film Punch-Drunk Love (2002).


Couch
2003 · 3m
country: United States
A man shops for a new couch at a Levitz furniture store.


Ballchewer
2002 · 1m
country: United States
Part of Adam Sandler’s informal “Meatball Series,” Ballchewer (2002) was shot during the making of Punch-Drunk Love. The short shows Luis Guzmán playing chess with Sandler’s pit bull, Meatball, while Emily Watson brings them beers.


Punch-Drunk Love
2002 · 1h 36m
country: United States
A socially awkward and volatile small business owner meets the love of his life after being threatened by a gang of scammers.


Magnolia
1999 · 3h 9m
country: United States
On one random day in the San Fernando Valley, a dying father, a young wife, a male caretaker, a famous lost son, a police officer in love, a boy genius, an ex-boy genius, a game show host and an estranged daughter will each become part of a dazzling multiplicity of plots, but one story.


Flagpole Special
1998 · 17m
country: United States
Commissioned for Creative Time’s RET.inevitable in 1998, Paul Thomas Anderson’s Flagpole Special is a DV short showing John C. Reilly and Chris Penn from the waist down, riffing on pickup-seminar bravado that anticipates Magnolia’s “Seduce and Destroy.” Screened once under the Brooklyn Bridge and never released, it’s now regarded as a lost film.


Boogie Nights
1997 · 2h 36m
country: United States
In 1977, an idealistic porn producer and his promising protege try to catch up with the end of an era before their never-ending party collides with cold, hard reality.


Hard Eight
1997 · 1h 42m
country: United States
A stranger mentors a young Reno gambler who weds a hooker and befriends a vulgar casino regular.


Cigarettes & Coffee
1993 · 24m
country: United States
At a desert diner, the lives of five strangers become linked through a single twenty-dollar bill. Shot for $20,000 and starring Philip Baker Hall, the short premiered at Sundance and later inspired Anderson’s debut feature Hard Eight (1996).


Production Assistant
1992 · 9m
country: Unknown
In 1992, Anderson was knee-deep at night in devising what would eventually become “Boogie Nights,” but during the day he worked as a production assistant on “Sworn To Vengeance,” a telefilm thriller starring Robert Conrad. From this gig sprang a brief, fascinating clip of the future director giving viewers a tour of the different departments on-set, from transpo to catering and make-up/wardrobe.


The Dirk Diggler Story
1988 · 31m
country: United States
A mockumentary short film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson at age seventeen. Presented as a behind-the-scenes television profile, it chronicles the rise and fall of Dirk Diggler, a well-endowed porn star whose fame and fortune spiral into drug abuse and tragedy. Modeled on real-life adult film actor John Holmes, the film serves as an early prototype for Anderson’s later feature Boogie Nights (1997).