 In 1993 , he wrote and directed a short film titled <unk> & 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 <unk> in the 1970s and 1980s . His third feature , Magnolia ( 1999 ) , received wide acclaim despite struggling at the box office . 
