Saturday night in Los Angeles, the Director's Guild of America (DGA) announced their biggest pick of the year: Tom Hooper, of 'The King's Speech,' won Outstanding Feature Film Director.

That makes 'Speech' the clear Oscar frontrunner. As Deadline wisely notes on its official listing of the Guild's 2011 winners, only six times in history has the DGA winner not won the Academy Award for Best Director.

Kudos to Hooper and his 'Speech' team, including stars Colin Firth, Helena Bonham Carter and Geoffrey Rush (all nominees at tonight's SAG Awards). They're picking up steam at precisely the right time, as the race for the Best Picture Oscar escalates toward the Feb. 27 Academy Awards.

Other DGA winners include Charles Ferguson for the documentary 'Inside Job,' and Mick Jackson for the nonfiction HBO miniseries 'Temple Grandin,' starring Claire Danes. And Martin Scorsese took home a trophy for directing the inaugural episode of HBO's 'Boardwalk Empire,' starring Steve Buscemi.