AwardsWatch Podcast Ep. 331 – The State of the Oscar Race Post-DGA

On episode 331 of the AwardsWatch podcast, AW Editor-In-Chief, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade and Associate Editor Sophia Ciminello break down the recent DGA win by Paul Thomas Anderson for One Battle After Another and what that win means to the Oscar race at large right now.

There was a lot of anticipation leading up to last weekend’s Directors Guild of America (DGA) awards, with Anderson and Ryan Coogler (Sinners) as the top contenders angling for that win, and with it came a good deal of Oscar pundit skittishness and squirming. Although most had acquiesced to the reality that Anderson was going to be the likely winner, the fact that no Black director had ever won DGA in its 77 years (78 now) gave some of them enough to hold onto a chance of it happening, and for a momentum switch from One Battle to Sinners begin to emerge. It didn’t happen, and Producers Guild of America (PGA) voting ended days before the DGA Awards so those votes are locked in too. We won’t know those results for almost another three weeks.

You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more. You can also listen to it on our AwardsWatch YouTube page.

This podcast runs 1h. We will be back soon with an Oscar retrospective for the 74^th Academy Awards, covering the films of 2001. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

Latest posts by Erik Anderson (see all)

• AwardsWatch Podcast Ep. 331 – The State of the Oscar Race Post-DGA - February 9, 2026
• Latino Entertainment Journalists Association (LEJA) Film Awards: ‘Sinners’ Wins 6, Including Best Picture - February 9, 2026
• International Cinephile Society (ICS) Awards: ‘The Secret Agent’ Wins Six, Including Acting Prizes for Wagner Moura and Tânia Maria - February 8, 2026