MUMBAI: Weinstein Company could‘t have rejoiced more as The Kings Speech has won both the Director‘s Guild of America (DGA) Award and the Screen Actors Guild (Sag) Award for best ensemble.

Earlier it had won the Producers Guild of America (PGA) award making it the clear favourite to win best film at the Oscar Awards next month. The race is as good as over. This marks a complete turnaround in the Oscar race. The Social Network won almost every critics award for Best Picture. It also won the Golden Globe for best picture, diretcor and screenplay.

The Guilds though felt differently in an overwhelming manner. It could be that the Social Network after so much critical acclaim wins just one Oscar for screenplay. If it does it has great company - Citizen Kane and Pulp Fiction. Coming back to the Sag awards the winners were as expected. Apart from the ensemble award The Kings Speech also saw Colin Firth pick up the best actor trophy.

The best actress was won by Natalie Protman playing a tormneted ballerina in Black Swan. It will probably be that Annette Bening who has been nominated for The Kids Are Alright loses the Oscar for the fourth time. The boxing move The Fighter won both supporting actor categories for Christian Bale and Melissa Leo. All of them won at the Golden Globes as well. They especially Firth and Bale have won most of the critics awards. Unlike The Social Network though they should all pick up Oscars.

The huge surprise over the weekend was The Kings Speech helmer Tom Hooper winning the DGA over David Fincher for The Social Network. It had been widely expected that this would be Fincher‘s year. He lost a couple of years back to Danny Boyle for Slumdog Millionaire. That film set in Mumbai had like The Kings Speech also won DGA, PGA and the Sag ensemble before destroying the competition at the Oscar Awards.