Danny Boyle wins top prize at Directors Guild awards

Director Danny Boyle won the top award for Outstanding Achievement in Feature Film at the 61st annual Directors Guild of America Awards for his film, "Slumdog Millionaire," on Saturday night.

Boyle was chosen over Ron Howard ("Frost/Nixon"), Gus Van Sant ("Milk"), David Fincher ("The Curious Case of Benjamin Button") and Christopher Nolan ("The Dark Knight") for the award, E! reports.

"Slumdog Millionaire" has now won the top prize at four major awards ceremonies. It won the Best Ensemble Cast award at last month's Screen Actors Guild Awards, as well as top prizes at the Producers Guild of America and Golden Globe Awards. It is nominated for 10 Academy Awards this year.

The film tells the story of an impoverished urban youth, played by Dev Patel, who makes an improbable run on the Indian version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" Flashbacks to his early childhood with his brother playedby Madhur Mittal, and his love interest, played by Freida Pinto, reveal the sources of his knowledge. It was filmed in Mumbai, India, in late 2007 and early 2008.

Boyle's win at the DGA awards establishes "Slumdog Millionaire" as the favorite to take home the Best Picture of the Year award at the Oscars on Feb. 22. In the 61-year-old history of the DGA awards, the top prizewinners failed to take home the Best Director award at the Oscars only six times, according to the BBC.

However, the massive success of "Slumdog Millionaire" strikes a parallel to that of "Brokeback Mountain" in 2005. "Brokeback" director Ang Lee took home the top award at the DGA's that year and while he also won Best Director at the Oscars, the Best Picture Award ultimately went to "Crash."

Similarly again to "Slumdog Millionaire," "Brokeback Mountain" took home the top prizes at both the Golden Globe and Producers Guild Awards that year. The Golden Globe winner for Best Motion Picture – Drama has failed to win Best Picture at the Oscars every year since 2004 and five of the last six overall.

But for Boyle, whose film was abandoned by Warner Bros. and almost received a straight-to-DVD release before being picked up by Fox Searchlight, the award was a continuation of "Slumdog Millionaire's" own improbable run. After winning the award, Boyle thanked presenters Joel and Ethan Coen for their own efforts in filmmaking.

"To step into the shoes of people like the Coen brothers, it's phenomenal. I have stolen from them all my career, in a naked and appalling way," he said.