2026 Directors Guild Awards: Paul Thomas Anderson & Charlie Polinger

by Alex Billington
February 8, 2026
Source: DGA.org

This weekend, the winners of the 78th Annual DGA Awards were announced at an upbeat celebration in Los Angeles. The 2025 awards season shuffles onward heading towards the finale with these director prizes, ending with the Academy Awards airing in March. This year it’s One Battle After Another director Paul Thomas Anderson (loving known as PTA) dominating the awards season – taking home the top DGA prize for his beloved film starring Leonardo DiCaprio & Chase Infiniti. Along with The Plague director Charlie Polinger winning for Best First Feature. A superb film about bullies & being yourself – highly recommend it. I also totally love OBAA, so I couldn’t be happier. In addition, Ukraine doc 2000 Meters to Andriivka (directed by Mstyslav Chernov) won the prize for Best Documentary; Stephen Chbosky won for directing the Netflix movie Nonnas; and prizes went to Amanda Marsalis for an episode of “The Pitt”, and Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg for an episode of “The Studio”, in the TV categories. The Directors Guild Awards are one of the premiere prizes in Hollywood, honoring “Outstanding Directorial Achievement” in multiple categories including TV and commercials. Congrats to all of the amazing films & series nominated this year.

The winners of the Directors Guild of America Outstanding Directorial Achievement Awards for 2025 were announced on Saturday, February 7th, during the 78th Annual DGA Awards Dinner at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles, California. You can check out the full list of this year big’s winners, which also includes other honors for directing for TV and commercials, via the official DGA website. Congrats to Paul and Charlie.

For the 78th annual DGA Awards honoring films from 2025, One Battle After Another director Paul Thomas Anderson won the prestigious prize over his four fellow filmmaker nominees: Ryan Coogler for Sinners, Guillermo del Toro for Frankenstein, Josh Safdie for Marty Supreme, and Chloe Zhao for Hamnet. Honestly all these nominees are deserving of the honor, an incredible line-up of great directors. Wow. I would’ve also nominated Joachim Trier for Sentimental Value, if I had a say. Other favorites include Clint Bentley for Train Dreams and Mary Bronstein for If I Had Legs I’d Kick You. And for the Best First-Time Feature award, The Plague director Charlie Polinger won over his four fellow nominees: Hasan Hadi for The President’s Cake, Harry Lighton for Pillion, Alex Russell for Lurker, and Eva Victor for Sorry, Baby. Another terrific line-up. I would’ve also chosen Akinola Davies for My Father’s Shadow and Harris Dickinson for Urchin – two of the best feature debuts from 2025. Congrats to all the nominees & honorees from 2025. Finally, the Academy Awards are coming up March 15th wrapping up the 2025 awards season.

At the 2026 ceremony, there was no Lifetime Achievement Award given this year (Ang Lee won it last year). Other notable winners include Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg winning for directing “The Oner” episode of The Studio series on Apple TV (so good). And Stephen Chbosky winning for best TV movie for the Nonnas movie on Netflix starring Vince Vaughn – which is a sign that we everyone should watch this if they haven’t seen it yet. Australian director Shannon Murphy (of Babyteeth) also won for directing the “Dying for Sex” series. Previous winners of the Directors Guild Award prize recently are: Alfonso Cuarón for Roma (2018), Sam Mendes for 1917 (2019), Chloe Zhao for Nomadland (2020), Jane Campion for The Power of the Dog (2021), Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert for Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022), Christopher Nolan for Oppenheimer (2024), & Sean Baker for Anora (2025). The DGA Awards have been given out since 1948.