"The King's Speech" wins Directors Guild of America's award

PanARMENIAN.Net - Tom Hooper won the Directors Guild of America's award four outstanding directorial achievement in feature film at the 63rd annual DGA Awards as "The King's Speech" gathered further momentum in its awards season quest.

The Weinstein Co. release also took the top prize at the Producers Guild of America's awards ceremony and led the field by capturing 12 Academy Awards nominations.

British-born Hooper was previously nominated by the DGA in its television miniseries category for HBO's John Adams in 2008, but this was his first feature film nomination. "Oh my god," Hooper exclaimed as he accepted the prize for the film, thanking his cast and crew and the DGA before concluding, "I'm overwhelmed." Earlier in the evening, he also acknowledged his mother for first telling him about writer David Seidler's play, which became the basis of the movie, and his father, who was present, for supporting his directorial ambitions when he was just a kid.

Hooper now becomes the front-runner to capture the Oscar for best director since on only six occasions since the DGA Awards began in 1948 has the DGA winner failed to go on to win the Oscar for best director, according to The Hollywood Reporter.