Boogie Nights

Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights follows the rise and fall of a young entrant into the porn industry in the 1970s and '80s.

This was Anderson's second feature length film. His first was Hard Eight, starring Philip Baker Hall and Gwyneth Paltrow.

Anderson had expressed regret over the control that Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer had taken from him during the making of Hard Eight. When pitching Boogie Nights to studios, Anderson said up front that the film would be three hours long and earn an NC-17 rating. New Line Cinema agreed to make the film under the condition that it earn an R rating and be made for under $15 million. Anderson agreed.

Boogie Nights appeared on several critics' top ten lists of 1997 and earned Academy Award nominations for Burt Reynolds, Julianne Moore and Paul Thomas Anderson. Reynolds won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor.