Paul Thomas Anderson

Paul Thomas Anderson

Paul Thomas Anderson is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. His films are often characterized by their depiction of flawed and desperate characters. He is noted for his frequent collaborations with actors Philip Baker Hall, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Julianne Moore, Melora Walters, John C. Reilly, Joaquin Phoenix and Daniel Day-Lewis. Anderson has been nominated for eight Academy Awards, one Golden Globe Award and five BAFTA Awards. His eighth film, Phantom Thread, was released in 2017.

About Paul Thomas Anderson in brief

Summary Paul Thomas AndersonPaul Thomas Anderson is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. His films are often characterized by their depiction of flawed and desperate characters. He is noted for his frequent collaborations with actors Philip Baker Hall, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Julianne Moore, Melora Walters, John C. Reilly, Joaquin Phoenix and Daniel Day-Lewis. Anderson has been nominated for eight Academy Awards, one Golden Globe Award and five BAFTA Awards. He has directed music videos for artists including Fiona Apple, Radiohead, Haim, Joanna Newsom, Aimee Mann, Jon Brion and Michael Penn, and has also directed a documentary, Junun, about the making of the album of the same name in India. He made his feature film debut with Hard Eight. His eighth film, Phantom Thread, was released in 2017. Anderson is the son of Edwina and Ernie Anderson, who was an actor who was the voice of ABC and a Cleveland television late-night horror movie host known as \”Ghoulardi\”. He is third youngest of nine children. He had a troubled relationship with his mother but was close with his father, who encouraged him to become a writer or director. Anderson attended a number of schools, including Buckley in Sherman Oaks, John Thomas Dye School, Campbell Hall School, Cushing Academy, and Montclair Prep. His first film was a 30-minute mockumentary shot on video called The Dirk Diggler Story, about a pornography star; the story was inspired by John Holmes, who also served as a major inspiration for Boogie Nights.

Anderson made his first film when he was eight, and started making films on a Betamax video camera that his father bought in 1982. He began writing in adolescence, and began experimenting with a Bolex sixteen millimeter camera. He decided to make a 20-minute film that would be his college film. For USD 10,000, made up of gambling winnings, his father’s credit card’s money set aside for him for college, Anderson made a short film connecting a girlfriend with a coffee shop. The film was screened at the 1993 Sundance Festival Shorts Program. He was invited to the 1994 Sundance Feature Film Program to direct his first full-length film, Sydney Rysher, retitled Hard Eight, which served as his first feature film. While completing the film, Anderson re-edited it and re- edited it at the Ryshers’ home in Sydney, Australia. His second feature film, There Will Be Blood, about an oil prospector during the Southern California oil boom, achieved major critical and commercial success and is often cited as one of the greatest films of the 2000s. This was followed by The Master and Inherent Vice. Anderson’s third film, Magnolia, received further accolades with Magnolia and Punch-Drunk Love. His fourth film, The Master, was a romantic comedy-drama film set in the San Fernando Valley.