The Washington, D.C. Area Film Critics Association has spoken – and it’s all good news for director Danny Boyle.

WAFCA selected Boyle’s “Slumdog Millionaire” Best Film in its just-announced annual awards. The group, which I’m proud to say includes me as a member, delivered four awards in all to Boyle’s film.

The news will only help “Millionaire” as Oscar season approaches.

With no clear favorite so far, plus the likelihood that a populist film like “The Dark Knight” could alienate some voters, Boyle’s latest could be the prohibitive favorite come February.

Here’s the full list of WAFCA winners:

Best Film: “Slumdog Millionaire”
Best Director: Danny Boyle (“Slumdog Millionaire”)
Best Actor: Mickey Rourke (“The Wrestler”)
Best Actress: Meryl Streep (“Doubt”)
Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger (“The Dark Knight”)
Best Supporting Actress: Rosemarie DeWitt (“Rachel Getting Married“)
Best Original Screenplay: Jenny Lumet (“Rachel Getting Married”)
Best Adapted Screenplay: Simon Beaufoy (“Slumdog Millionaire”)
Best Animated: “Wall?E”
Best Documentary: “Man on Wire”
Best Foreign Film: “Let the Right One In”
Best Ensemble: “Doubt”
Best Breakthrough: Dev Patel (“Slumdog Millionaire”)
Best Art Direction: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button/Paramount

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The Starz Denver Film Festival chose wisely in selecting “Slumdog Millionaire” to be its “Big Night” feature.

The film could be the one which catapults director Danny Boyle into the Oscar circle … at last.

He should have been here before, what with modern classics like “Trainspotting,” “Millions” and “28 Days Later” on his resume.

Still, the Oscar Gods are fickle, and sometimes it takes a while before they anoint a great director as worthy of those gleaming statuettes.

“Millionaire” may not be Boyle’s best film, but it captures the cultural zeitgeist in ways Academy voters will be hard pressed to ignore.

The film follows an Indian orphan named Jamal (played by various actors, but Dev Patel is the adult Jamal) who ends up on the Hindi version of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?”

Jamal is in the hot seat in more ways than one. The show’s producers suspect he’s cheating en route to the game’s big prize, and he hopes his national exposure can reunite him with a long lost friend.

“Millionaire” is told in fragmented style, with the game show sequences serving as the connecting plot to a series of flashbacks. Young Jamal endured horrible poverty and the cruel separation from first his mother and then his brother and best girl friend.

How he survives – and becomes a symbol for his changing nation – is what makes “Slumdog” such a unique film experience.

It isn’t an imperfect one, despite the recent raves. The central love story is undernourished, to say the least, and the manipulative nature of the plot welcomes criticism from the cynic in all of us.

But Boyle is a master visualist, one with such a firm grip on his audience that we’ll follow him down any cinematic alley. He’s also unparalleled when it comes to bringing out the best from youthful performers (see “Millions” for all the proof you’ll ever need).

“Slumdog Millionaire” reflects the new Indian economy, a full-throttled engine which puts pressure on existing social systems. Jamal’s improbable run at the game show’s jackpot throws that tension into stark relief.

American audiences might not be familiar with the Bollywood film style, but “SM” offers the perfect introduction. The film’s musical number, which precedes the closing credits, is the most buoyant, beautiful five minutes of film you’ll see all year.

And you might just hear those musical strains again come Oscar night.

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