Ben Affleck’s ‘Argo’ On Track For Oscar Glory? Hopes High After Producer Guild Awards Win

Ben Affleck’s anointing continued in Beverly Hills last night, as Argo followed up its Golden Globe glory and came away with the top accolade at the 24th Annual Producers Guild Awards.

The 40 year-old directed, starred, and co-produced Argo, and he shared the Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures with co-producers George Clooney and Grant Heslov.

Nutshelled, Argo tells the real-life story of the rescue of six US diplomats from Tehran, using the ruse that they were working on a fake sci-fi film called — you guessed it — Argo.

That rescue operation was a joint effort between CIA and Canadian government operation, which began in 1979 and ended early in 1980 during the Iranian Hostage Crisis, became known as the Canadian Caper, Sky News notes.

With just under a month until the 85th Academy Awards on February 24, Argo has now emerged as the front runner for the Best Picture Oscar, among its seven nominations.

The reason for that thinking is that in the past five years, Best Film winners at the Producers Guild Awards have gone on to claim the Best Picture Oscar.

Previous PGA winners that have done this include The Artist in 2012, The King’s Speech in 2011 and Slumdog Millionaire in 2009.

But don’t count out Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln, Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty and Tom Hooper’s Les Miserables. All are strong films and all have their own cheer-leading contingent.

But from where I’m sitting Affleck’s Oscar directorial snub is starting to look like a winning edge.

Everybody loves an underdog. Full list of PGA award winners at Film.com.