Pushing the rags to riches story one step closer to receiving Hollywood’s biggest filmmaking prize at the Academy Awards, Danny Boyle’s “Slumdog Millionaire” won the top honor Sunday from the Directors Guild of America.

The Directors Guild of America (DGA), the esteemed union of film directors whose voting membership overlaps that of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded the game show movie with the night's top honor for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film.

After beating out strong competition from “The Dark Knight,” “Milk,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and “Frost/Nixon,“ “Slumdog Millionaire” became the top Oscar favorite, since the guild recipient almost always goes on to win the directing Oscar.

Accepting his prize at the Los Angeles ceremony, Boyle insisted to thank Warner Bros “for actually having the grace to do the right thing, when I think it would have been a lot easier to do the wrong thing, and pass the film on to Fox Searchlight, who are an extraordinary bunch of people.” The movie almost got caught in the crossfire when Warner Bros. closed their arthouse studio and the movie almost wound up going straight to DVD.

“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 joked backstage. 

“Slumdog Millionaire,” which follows the story of a boy from the Mumbai slums, who competes on the Indian version of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” has now won gongs at four major awards, including the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild Awards. It has also received 10 nods for the Academy Awards, to be held on February 22.