Eastwood’s Next Sidekick Might Be Named Oscar : Awards: After actor-director receives Directors Guild honor for ‘Unforgiven,’ odds are that Academy Awards will make his day too.

With Oscar ballots still in the hands of voters, a number of Academy Awards scenarios remain possible. But as of today, the odds-on big winner looks like a given: “Unforgiven.”

That’s the conclusion many Hollywood insiders are reaching after “Unforgiven” director Clint Eastwood was named best feature film director of 1992 by his peers in the Directors Guild of America on Saturday night.

In eight of the last 10 years, the winner of the guild’s prize has gone on to win the Oscar for best direction, and the director’s film has, in turn, won the Oscar for best picture of the year. Over the 45-year history of the guild awards, the correlation between guild winners and the Oscar for best direction has failed only three times.

Eastwood shed his tough-guy image briefly as he accepted his first such film industry honor in a career that dates, most notably, to the “Rawhide” TV series in 1958. His words came slowly and emotionally. But he remained his usual, to-the-point, self. And he refused to be drawn into Oscar speculation when reporters asked.

“It’s sensational,” the 62-year-old actor-director told the audience as he picked up the large golden plaque from presenter and previous guild winner Barry Levinson. “I don’t know what to say. You know I’m not a blabbermouth.”

Backstage, Eastwood, who has been directing for 23 years, said he was particularly honored that the award came from directors and that he was selected from such “distinguished company.”

He was pleased, too, that the film for which he was honored is a Western, the genre with which he is so closely associated. “The movie summarized everything I feel about the Western.” He called it “relevant” for the 1990s: “The moral is the concern with gunplay . . . it demythologizes people who indulge in violent behavior.”

“Unforgiven,” which opened last summer, became a favorite among film critics and the public. About $80 million in tickets have been sold.

The film emerged as a leading Oscar contender when it won best picture prizes from the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn. in December and later from the National Society of Film Critics. It then won as best dramatic picture at the Golden Globes Awards presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn., which also typically is viewed as an Oscar precursor.

“Unforgiven” received nine Oscar nominations, tying it with “Howards End” as the most nominated film for the Oscars, to be presented March 29.

For Eastwood, the guild award, as well as his Oscar nominations for best director, actor and best film (as producer), are the first of his career.

Eastwood’s films have included “High Plains Drifter,” “The Outlaw Josey Wales,” “Dirty Harry” and “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.” Over the years, he has emerged as a Hollywood icon and international star. His “Dirty Harry” expression, “Go ahead, make my day,” became a familiar part of the American idiom.

Two other of Eastwood’s colleagues in the guild competition attended the banquet at the Beverly Hilton: Rob Reiner, nominated for “A Few Good Men,” and Neil Jordan for “The Crying Game.” James Ivory (“Howards End”) was scheduled to attend, but was said to be ill with flu. The fifth nominee, Robert Altman, who directed “The Player,” attended similar ceremonies held the same evening in New York City.

As he made the presentations, Levinson noted that Reiner’s film was nominated for best picture, and Reiner was nominated for the guild honor, but did not receive an Oscar nomination for direction. “I’m not sure how the Academy (of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) does that,” he said. “ . . . nominate a best picture and not the director. . . . There should be some kind of linkage.”

Among the direction honors for television were: Tom Cherones for comedy series, “The Contest” episode of “Seinfeld”; Ron Lagomarsino for dramatic special, the two-hour pilot of “Picket Fences”; and Rob Thompson for dramatic series, the “Cicely” episode of “Northern Exposure.”

In the musical/variety category, Bobby Quinn won for directing the melancholy second-to-the-last night of “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson,” which billed Bette Midler and Robin Williams. The guild’s highest honor, the “D. W. Griffith Award,” was presented to Sidney Lumet, who was in Manhattan where he received the recognition from fellow directors Martin Scorsese and Milos Forman. Lumet told the audience by videotape that the salute is “the most rewarding moment of my life.”

The other guild winners:

* Comedy series: “Seinfeld,” “The Contest” episode directed by Tom Cherones, with related awards to Joan Van Horn, Jason Saville and David Trainor.

* Nighttime drama series: “Northern Exposure,” “Cicely” episode directed by Rob Thompson, with related awards to Jack J. Terry, Patrick McKee, Robert Loeser.

* Daytime drama: “Wonderworks,” “You Must Remember This” episode directed by Helaine Head, with related awards to Thomas Kane, Janet Davidson, Bryan Denegal.

* Musical-variety show: “The Tonight Show,” director Bobby Quinn, with related awards to James Kantrowe, Michael Gray, Kevin R. Quinn.

* Documentary: “Brother’s Keeper,” directed by Joseph Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky.

* Daytime serial: “Another World,” director Susan Strickler, with related awards to Mary Madeiras, Dennis Cameron, Cynthia Flood Jacobsen, Arthur Lewis and Karen Wilkens.

* Dramatic special: Two-hour pilot of “Picket Fences,” directed by Ron Lagomarsino, with related awards to Ron Mitchell, Jack Philbrick and John Isabeau.

* Commercial direction: Leslie Dektor.

* Sports career achievement award: TV sports director and innovator Harry Coyle.

* Honorary life member: Guild president Arthur Hiller.

* Robert B. Aldrich service award: Gene Reynolds and John Rich.

* Frank Capra achievement award: Willard H. Sheldon.

* Franklin J. Schaffner achievement award: James (Woody) Woodworth.