ARGO: TAKES BEST PICTURE AT THE OSCARS

Argo director Ben Affleck accepts the Oscar for Best Movie onstage at the 85th Annual Academy Awards on February 24, 2013 in Hollywood, California. — AFP Photo

It’s the first best picture winner not to be nominated for best director since 1989′s “Driving Miss Daisy.” But despite the omission of Affleck — or perhaps buoyed by it — “Argo” emerged as the Oscar favorite, winning top honors from the directors, producers, screen actors and writers guilds.

Affleck and fellow producers George Clooney and Grant Heslov accepted the award Sunday night.

Among the other eight nominees, Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln” was perceived as the biggest competition to “Argo.” The other nominees were “Life of Pi,” ”Silver Linings Playbook,” ”Zero Dark Thirty,” ”Les Miserables,” ”Amour,” ”Beasts of the Southern Wild” and “Django Unchained.”