The Director’s Guild Awards are kind of like an early warning system for the Best Director and Best Picture Oscar – good news for Birdman and its director Alejandro J. Inarritu. Inarritu and his movie scooped up top honours at the DGA Awards this past Saturday, boosting Birdman’s chances at the Academy Awards in two weeks. The DGAs have matched the Oscars Best Director winner 10 out of the past 11 years.

Alejandro Inarritu
Inarritu on set for his new movie, The Revenant, starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

Birdman, a satire about the flaws of showbusiness, has quickly become Inarritu’s most influential work to date. The movie stars Michael Keaton as a superhero movie star at the tail end of his career, who tries to revive it with his own Broadway play.

More: Alejandro Inarritu's Birdman Could Have Oscars Shout [Trailer + Pictures]

Inarritu triumphed over four other directors - Clint Eastwood for Iraq war drama American Sniper, Richard Linklater for coming-of-age tale Boyhood, Morten Tyldum for the Alan Turing story adaptation The Imitation Game and Wes Anderson for The Grand Budapest Hotel – but remained humble in his winner’s speech.

Watch the Birdman trailer below.

More: Leonardo DiCaprio Stars in Alejandro Inarritu's Follow-Up to Birdman

"If this is considered a great film, it has nothing to do with me, it is a miracle," Inarritu said alongside last year's DGA winner, fellow Mexican Alfonso Cuaron.

"I actually say that humbled," he added, "because I never expected to be here tonight talking to you, never in my life."