page_title: Paul Thomas Anderson
section_title: 2000s
hierarchical_section_title: Paul Thomas Anderson / Career / 2000s
context_page_description: Paul Thomas Anderson is an American filmmaker. Born in Los Angeles, Anderson developed an interest in filmmaking from a young age. An alumnus of the Sundance Institute, Anderson is famous for making often epic psychological drama films which often take place in San Fernando Valley and deal with characters seeking after redemption, forgiveness or loss; they also use wide framing as well as realistic or gritty cinematography. Anderson made his feature film debut with Hard Eight in 1996. He found critical and commercial success with Boogie Nights, set in the Golden Age of Porn, and received further accolades with Magnolia, an ensemble piece set in the San Fernando Valley, and Punch-Drunk Love, a romantic comedy-drama film.
  Anderson's 2007 film There Will Be Blood, about an oil prospector during the Southern California oil boom, achieved major critical and commercial success and was often cited as one of the greatest films of the 2000s. This was followed by The Master in 2012 and Inherent Vice in 2014. Anderson's eighth film, Phantom Thread, was released in 2017.
context_section_description: After the success of Magnolia, Anderson stated that he would like to work with Adam Sandler in the future and that he was determined to make his next film a comparatively shorter length of ninety minutes. The resulting feature was the romantic comedy-drama film Punch-Drunk Love (2002), starring Sandler, with Emily Watson portraying his love interest. The story centers on a beleaguered small-business owner with anger issues and seven emasculating sisters. A subplot in the film was partly based on David Phillips (also called The Pudding Guy). Sandler received critical praise for his role in his first major departure from the mainstream comedies that had made him a star. At the 2002 Cannes Film Festival, Anderson won the Best Director Award and was nominated for the Palme d'Or.
  There Will Be Blood (2007) was loosely based on Upton Sinclair's novel Oil!. It follows a ruthless silver miner exploiting the Southern California oil boom in the early 20th century. Against a budget of $25 million, the film earned $76.1 million worldwide. There Will Be Blood received eight Academy Award nominations, tying with No Country for Old Men for the most nominations that year. Anderson was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay, losing all three to the Coen Brothers for No Country for Old Men. Daniel Day-Lewis won the Oscar for Best Actor. Paul Dano received a BAFTA nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Anderson was nominated for Best Director from the Directors Guild of America. There Will Be Blood was regarded by some critics as one of the greatest films of the decade, some parties further declaring it one of the most accomplished American films of the modern era. David Denby of The New Yorker wrote "the young writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson has now done work that bears comparison to the greatest achievements of Griffith and Ford", while Richard Schickel proclaimed it "one of the most wholly original American movies ever made".  In 2017, New York Times film critics A. O. Scott and Manohla Dargis named it the "Best Film of the 21st Century So Far".
caption: Adam Sandler, Paul Thomas Anderson, Emily Watson and Philip Seymour Hoffman at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival
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