Paul Thomas Anderson has done at most six films.
Paul Thomas Anderson . In 1993 , he wrote and directed a short film titled Cigarettes & Coffee on a budget of $ 20,000 . After he attended the Sundance Institute , Anderson had a deal with Rysher Entertainment to direct his first feature film , a neo-noir crime thriller titled Hard Eight , in 1996 . Anderson received critical and commercial success for his film Boogie Nights ( 1997 ) , set during the Golden Age of Porn in the 1970s and 1980s . His third feature , Magnolia ( 1999 ) , takes place over a single day in the San Fernando Valley , following the interconnected lives of several characters in search of happiness and resolution . In 2002 , the romantic comedy-drama Punch-Drunk Love , Anderson 's fourth feature , was released to generally favorable reviews . The epic drama There Will Be Blood ( 2007 ) , set in the late 19th and early 20th centuries , centers on a silver miner 's efforts to capitalize on the Southern California oil boom . Anderson 's sixth film , the drama The Master ( 2012 ) , was released to critical acclaim . His seventh film , the crime comedy-drama Inherent Vice , based on the novel of the same name by Thomas Pynchon , was released in 2014 , to general acclaim . His eighth film , Junun , is a documentary about the making of an album of the same name . His ninth film , Phantom Thread , which will reunite him with actor Daniel Day-Lewis , will be released on December 25 , 2017 .