Paul Thomas Anderson

Paul Thomas Anderson (born June 26, 1970), also known by his initials PTA, is an American filmmaker.

His accolades include nominations for eleven Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and eight BAFTA Awards (winning one for Best Original Screenplay).

He has also won Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival, the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival, and both the Silver and Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival.

Anderson's films are often psychological dramas characterized by depictions of flawed, desperate characters; explorations of dysfunctional families, alienation, loneliness, and redemption; and a bold visual style that uses constantly-moving camera shots and long takes.

Anderson was born in the Studio City neighborhood of Los Angeles on June 26, 1970, the son of Edwina (née Gough) and actor Ernie Anderson (1923–1997).

His father was the voice of ABC and played a Cleveland late-night horror host known as Ghoulardi, after whom Anderson would later name his production company.

Anderson has three siblings, as well as five older half-siblings from his father's first marriage.

He grew up in the San Fernando Valley and was raised as a Roman Catholic.

He had a troubled relationship with his mother, but was close with his father, who encouraged him to become a writer or director.

He attended The Buckley School, John Thomas Dye School, Campbell Hall School, Cushing Academy, and Montclair College Preparatory School.

Anderson was involved in filmmaking from a young age, and never had an alternative plan to directing films.

He made his first film when he was eight years old, and started making films on a Betamax video camera that his father bought in 1982.

He later started using 8 mm film, but realized that video was easier.

As a teenager, he began writing and experimenting with a Bolex 16 mm camera.

After years of experimenting with "standard fare", he wrote and filmed his first real production as a senior at Montclair Prep, using money he earned cleaning cages at a pet store.

The film was a 30-minute mockumentary about a porn star called The Dirk Diggler Story (1988), with a story inspired by John Holmes, who also served as a major inspiration for Boogie Nights (1997), the feature-length adaptation of The Dirk Diggler Story.

Anderson attended Santa Monica College, before having two semesters as an English major at Emerson College, where he was taught by David Foster Wallace.

Anderson spent two days at New York University before he began his career as a production assistant on television, films, music videos, and game shows in Los Angeles and New York City.

Feeling that the material shown to him at film school turned the experience into "homework or a chore", Anderson decided to make a 20-minute film that would be his "college".

For a budget of $10,000 (which was made up of gambling winnings, his girlfriend's credit card, and the money his father set aside for him for college), Anderson made Cigarettes & Coffee (1993), a short film connecting multiple storylines with a $20 bill.

The film was screened at the 1993 Sundance Festival Shorts Program.

He planned to expand the film to feature-length, and was invited to the 1994 Sundance Feature Film Program.

Michael Caton-Jones served as Anderson's mentor.

He saw him as someone with "talent and a fully formed creative voice, but not much hands-on experience", and gave him some hard and practical lessons.

While at Sundance, Anderson had a deal with Rysher Entertainment to direct his first full-length feature film, Sydney, which was retitled Hard Eight.

After completing the film, Rysher re-edited it.

Anderson worked on the script for his second film while working on the first one, and completed it in 1995.

After his directorial debut, Hard Eight (1996), he had critical and commercial success with Boogie Nights (1997), and received further accolades with Magnolia (1999) and Punch-Drunk Love (2002).

He had the workprint of the original cut and submitted the film to the 1996 Cannes Film Festival, where it was shown at the Un Certain Regard section.

He had the version released, but only after he retitled the film, and raised the $200,000 necessary to finish it.

Anderson, Philip Baker Hall, John C. Reilly and Gwyneth Paltrow contributed to the final funding.

The version that was released was Anderson's and the acclaim from the film launched his career.

The film follows the life of a senior gambler and a homeless man.

Philip Seymour Hoffman worked with Anderson on five films.

In his review of the film, Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert wrote, "Movies like Hard Eight remind me of what original, compelling characters the movies can sometimes give us."

His fifth film, There Will Be Blood (2007), is often cited as one of the greatest of the 21st century.

It was followed by The Master (2012), Inherent Vice (2014), Phantom Thread (2017) and Licorice Pizza (2021).

Anderson is noted for his collaborations with the cinematographer Robert Elswit, the costume designer Mark Bridges, the composers Jon Brion and Jonny Greenwood, and several actors.

He has directed music videos for artists such as Brion, Fiona Apple, Haim, Aimee Mann, Joanna Newsom, Michael Penn, Radiohead and the Smile.

He also directed the documentary Junun (2015) and the short music film Anima (2019).