Ben Affleck Wins DGA Award; ‘Argo’ Locked for Best Picture Oscar?

This year’s Oscar race was very much up in the air until about a week ago but it now looks like Ben Affleck’s CIA thriller Argo has emerged as the clear frontrunner to take the Best Picture award at the Oscars. Last night, Ben Affleck was awarded the top prize from the Director Guild of America, completing the director’s sweep of all the major guild awards. As you recall, Argo also received the top honors at last week’s Screen Actors Guild Awards as well as the Producers Guild Awards.

Only one film since 1996 has lost the Oscar for Best Picture after sweeping the PGA, SAG and DGA awards and the Oscar race would be all but decided at this point if only for one sticking point: Ben Affleck failed to secure an Oscar nomination for Best Director last month and only one film ever won Best Picture without the corresponding Best Director nomination.

Making it even more intriguing, Ron Howard’s 1995 film Apollo 13 offers a precedent on the case. That film swept the Guild awards and like Affleck, Ron Howard was left out of the race for Best Director by the Academy. Apollo 13 eventually lost to Braveheart for Best Picture. Will history repeat itself or will Argo win it all?

At any rate, stay tuned. The Academy Awards ceremony will take place on February 24.  Here are the top winners from the 2012 DGA Awards:

• Feature film: Ben Affleck, Argo
• Drama series: Breaking Bad
• Comedy series: Girls
• Reality program: MasterChef
• TV-movie/miniseries: Game Change
• Documentary: Searching for Sugar Man