Oscars 2026: Paul Thomas Anderson wins best director for ‘One Battle After Another’
Paul Thomas Anderson at the 98th annual Academy Awards. (Disney/Frank Micelotta)
In the battle for best director, Paul Thomas Anderson came away with the win for his film One Battle After Another.
“You make a guy work hard for one of these, I really appreciate it,” Anderson said in accepting the award, thanking the academy for “finding my work worthy of this highest honor.”
He also recognized his fellow nominees in the category, Chloé Zhao for Hamnet, Ryan Coogler for Sinners, Josh Safdie for Marty Supreme and Joachim Trier for Sentimental Value.
“I couldn’t ask for a better class. It’s an honor to be counted amongst you guys,” he said. “There will always be some doubt in your heart that you deserve it, but there is no question at the pleasure for having it for myself.”
Finally, Anderson noted, “This is a wonder gift, and I’m so happy to call the movies home. This is really terrific.”
The win comes after 14 career Academy Award nominations for Anderson. It was his second win of the night, after winning best adapted screenplay.
Savannah Guthrie and mother Nancy Guthrie on Thursday, June 15, 2023. (Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images)
Today show host Savannah Guthrie is speaking out in her first interview nearly two months after her mother, Nancy Guthrie, was kidnapped from her Tucson, Arizona, home.
Authorities say Nancy Guthrie, 84, was abducted from her house in the early hours of Feb. 1. They have released surveillance images from outside Nancy Guthrie’s house, but the person who took her remains unidentified.
In an emotional interview with her friend and former co-host Hoda Kotb, Savannah Guthrie called the images “absolutely terrifying.”
“I can’t imagine that that is who she saw standing over her bed. I can’t. It’s too much,” she said.
Savannah recounted a heartbreaking conversation with her brother when she asked him if their mother’s abduction could have been because of her.
“He said, ‘I’m sorry sweetie, but yeah, maybe,'” Savannah recalled through tears.
She told Kotb that it’s “too much to bear to think that I brought this to her bedside, that it’s because of me.”
“I’m so sorry, Mommy, I’m so sorry,” Savannah said.
And to her family, she apologized through tears, “If it is me, I’m so sorry.”
But she added, “We still don’t know. … Honestly, we don’t know anything.”
Savannah also commented on the speculation early in the investigation that one of her family members could have been involved, calling that “unbearable.”
“It piles pain upon pain,” she said.
Authorities announced on Feb. 16 that they cleared the Guthrie family as suspects.
“No one took better care of my mom than my sister and brother-in-law, and no one protected my mom more than my brother,” she said. “And we love her and she is our shining light. She is our matriarch. She is all we have.”
In the days after Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance, various ransom notes were sent to the media.
“There are a lot of different notes, I think, that came. And I think most of them, it’s my understanding, are not real,” Savannah said. “And I didn’t see them, but a person that would send a fake ransom note has to look deeply at themselves.”
She added, “I believe the two notes that we received that we responded to, I tend to believe those are real.”
While Savannah said law enforcement has worked tirelessly on the investigation, she stressed that her family “cannot be at peace” without answers.
“Someone can do the right thing, and it is never too late to do the right thing. And our hearts are focused on that,” she said.
Another part of Kotb’s interview with Savannah Guthrie will air on Friday.
Anyone with information is urged to call 911, the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI, or the Pima County Sheriff’s Department at 520-351-4900.
Anne Hathaway in A24’s ‘Mother Mary’ (Credit: Frederic Batier)
Oscar-winning actress Anne Hathaway is also a singer, having contributed to movie soundtracks and starred in the musical Les Misérables. Now you can hear her sing a song from her upcoming movie Mother Mary, which she co-wrote with none other than Charli XCX.
“Burial” is a moody, electro-pop song that Anne co-wrote with Charli; Charli’s husband, George Daniel, who’s a member of the band The 1975; and Grammy-winning producer and artist Jack Antonoff.
A24, the studio releasing the film, also dropped a 30-second trailer for the movie’s soundtrack, which uses “Burial” as background music and shows Hathaway performing as the title character, who’s a pop star. The movie and the soundtrack arrive April 17.
Last year, Vogue described Anne’s character, Mother Mary, as “a sort of Gaga–Taylor Swift hybrid” who “has fled her tour and sought out the old friend who helped craft her all-consuming public persona in the first place.” That friend, played by Michaela Coel, is a fashion designer who Mother Mary wants to design a dress for her.
According to Vogue, none of the songs had been written by the time shooting started, leaving Hathaway to play a pop star without knowing what the pop star’s music sounded like. The magazine describes the film as “deeply weird.”
A photo marking the start of production on ‘Untamed’ season 2. (Elizabeth Morris/Netflix)
Cameras have started rolling on Untamed season 2.
Netflix has revealed that production on the second season of the hit mystery thriller series has begun in Hawaii. The season will shoot on location on O’ahu and the island of Hawaii.
Eric Bana will once again star as Kyle Turner, who takes on a new case that brings him to Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park.
Untamed is co-showrun and executive produced by Mark L. Smith and Elle Smith. The duo told Netflix they are “excited to explore the pristine landscapes and cultural identity of a very different national park, and find Turner in a new state of mind, outside the comfort of Yosemite.”
A special Hawaiian blessing took place last week, according to Netflix, ahead of production starting. Those in attendance included Bana, John Wells, Mark L. Smith and Elle Smith, as well as Adriana Nassar and Paola Franco from Netflix and Matt Devahl from Warner Bros Television.
According to its official logline, season 2 “follows special agent Kyle Turner as he’s called to investigate a mysterious death in Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park, where local tensions and the volatile, living landscape become an unpredictable force.”
Season 2 will consist of six one-hour episodes. The first season debuted to Netflix on July 17, 2025, where it reached the #1 spot on the Netflix Global Top 10. It remained on the list for seven weeks and was the third-most-watched Netflix program during the second half of 2025 after accumulating 92.8 million views, according to the streamer’s engagement report.
