Oscars 2026: 'One Battle After Another' Strengthens Lead After PGA Win
Paul Thomas Anderson’s darkly comedic action-thriller One Battle After Another won the Darryl F. Zanuck Award at the Producers Guild Awards in Beverly Hills on Saturday, cementing its position as a leading contender in the run-up to oscars 2026.
Where One Battle After Another stands heading into Oscars 2026
The PGA honor at the 37th annual Producers Guild Awards in Los Angeles builds on a run of major trophies: the film also took best picture at the British Academy Film Awards last week and Anderson won the top prize at the Directors Guild earlier this month. With those wins, One Battle After Another arrives in the final voting stretch for oscars 2026 with strong momentum.
PGA history and what the Zanuck Award signals
Since 2009, when both the Producers Guild and the motion picture academy expanded best picture nominee slates from five to 10 and adopted a preferential ballot, the PGA winner has gone on to win best picture all but three times. The PGA’s Zanuck Award has aligned with the Academy Award winner for Best Picture 17 of the past 22 years, and last year the PGA winner matched the Oscar winner when the PGA gave the award to Anora.
Major rivalries: Sinners and the Actor Awards
No other movie this season has matched One Battle After Another’s recent streak except Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, which scored a record-breaking 16 Oscar nominations in January. Sinners will face One Battle After Another for the cast award at the Actor Awards on Sunday; that ensemble honor is the most prestigious prize handed out by SAG-AFTRA voters, though it is not as strong a precursor as the PGA’s best film. Parasite did win the SAG ensemble right before the 2020 Oscars, a year when the PGA and Academy diverged—PGA winner 1917 lost the Oscar to Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite.
PGA winners across film and television
The Producers Guild released a full slate of winners at the ceremony in Beverly Hills. Key winners include:
• Darryl F. Zanuck Award (outstanding theatrical motion picture): One Battle After Another
• Outstanding animated theatrical motion picture: KPop Demon Hunters
• Norman Felton Award (outstanding episodic television — drama): The Pitt
• Danny Thomas Award (outstanding episodic television — comedy): The Studio
• David L. Wolper Award (outstanding limited or anthology series): Adolescence
• Outstanding televised or streamed motion picture: John Candy: I Like Me
• Outstanding nonfiction television: Pee-wee as Himself
• Outstanding live entertainment, variety, sketch, standup and talk series: The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
• Outstanding game and competition television: The Traitors
• Outstanding documentary film: My Mom Jayne
