Just two days after theGolden Globe for best director of the year went to Robert Altman for GosfordPark, the Directors Guild Of America(DGA) has thrown the running open again by omitting Altman from its shortlistof five nominees.

The nominees are Ron Howardfor A Beautiful Mind, PeterJackson for The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring, Baz Luhrmann for Moulin Rouge, Christopher Nolan for Memento and Ridley Scott for Black Hawk Down.

Apart from Howard, allnominees are non-Americans, which gives Howard a fighting chance to win,although ironically Howard won the DGA award in 1995 for Apollo 13 and thenfailed to get an Oscar nomination. Aside from that anomalous year, the DGAaward is considered a pretty good crystal ball on the Oscars and in 53 years ofvoting, the association has only differed from the Academy five times.

Nolan is a surprise choice,while Scott, who was overlooked by the Globes, has been gathering momentum for BlackHawk Down, especially since themovie has just gone wide to spectacular box office results.

The snub of Altman isstartling considering he has been cited by virtually every other awards group,but he is not the only loser. David Lynch, who was a Golden Globe nominee andmultiple critics award-winner, was also overlooked.