Paul Thomas Anderson, the screenwriter and director of “One Battle After Another,” opened his Best Adapted Screenplay acceptance speech by thanking Thomas Pynchon, the author of the book the film is based upon. 

It’s a good thing he did, because Pynchon’s “Vineland” helped nab this much-lauded filmmaker his very first pair of Academy Awards. Overall, the film walked away with the most wins Sunday night—six. 

Accepting the screenplay award, Anderson said he felt “incredibly honored to be part of this history.”

“This is an adaptation, so I owe a huge debt of admiration and love to Thomas Pynchon. Any writer knows that you either beg for forgiveness or your special thanks is really to your family and the people that you share a roof with who put up with what it means to live with a writer.”

“One Battle After Another” also picked up Oscars for Best Picture; Best Director for Anderson; Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role (Sean Penn); and Achievement in Film Editing for Andy Jurgensen.

In another Oscars first, Cassandra Kulukundis won the inaugural award for Achievement in Casting for the Anderson film. She’s worked with Anderson on his films for roughly three decades, including Magnolia, Punch-Drunk Love, “There Will Be Blood,” “The Master,” “Inherent Vice,”—another Pynchon adaptation—“Phantom Thread” and “Licorice Pizza.”

In all that time and all those movies—and more—Anderson had somehow never managed to personally snag his own Oscar until Sunday, when he won three, including the Best Picture trophy for producing the film. He joked about the award dry spell while accepting the award for Best Director.

“You make a guy work hard for one of these, I really appreciate it,” he said. 

In all, “One Battle After Another” won about half of the awards for which it received nominations, 13. “Sinners,” directed by Ryan Coogler, had the most, 16 nominations, and won four. 

Another adaptation, “Frankenstein,” directed by Guillermo del Toro and originally written by Mary Shelley, picked up three awards in celebration of its gorgeous visuals. Tamara Deverell and Shane Vieau won Best Production Design; Kate Hawley won Best Costume Design; and Mike Hill, Jordan Samuel and Cliona Furey won Best Makeup and Hairstyling. 

“Hamnet,” directed by Chloe Zhao and based on the book by Maggie O’Farrell, picked up the Best Actress award for Jessie Buckley’s lead role. 

It was another great year for adaptations at the Academy Awards! And if you still need to watch any of this year’s Oscar-nominated adaptations, check out our viewing guide here.

About the writer

Danielle Haynes is the co-founder and co-editor of Booked & Screened, covering book-to-screen adaptations, film and TV development. The Oscars are her Super Bowl.