Scorsese wins Directors Guild award for best director

LOS ANGELES, Feb 4 (Reuters) Veteran filmmaker Martin Scorsese took a giant step toward winning his first Oscar when he was named the Directors Guild of America's best director for 2007 for his crime thriller ''The Departed.'' The director, who has never won an Oscar despite making such classic movies as ''Goodfellas'' and ''Taxi Driver,'' beat Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, the director of ''Babel,'' Bill Condon (''Dreamgirls''), Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (co-directors of ''Little Miss Sunshine'') and Stephen Frears (''The Queen'') for an award that is often a major indicator of who wins the Oscar for best director.

The Academy Awards will be handed out on February 25.

Although Scorsese had been nominated seven times for the DGA's best film director award, yesterday's award for ''The Departed'' marked his first victory.

It made him the favourite to win his first Oscar for best direction of a film. Fifty-one of the last 57 DGA winners have gone on to win the Oscar.

REUTERS AKJ RK1250