UK broadcaster BBC Four hasannounced the nominations for the BBC Four World Cinema Award 2005, as voted byUK film critics, film school heads and exhibitors.

Two Asian martial arts films- Zhang Yimou's Hero and Takeshi Kitano's Zatoichi - make thefive strong shortlist. The other competitors are Pedro Almodovar's BadEducation, Walter Salles Motorcycle Diaries and Nuri Bilge Ceylan's Uzak.

Jonathan Ross, who will hostthe live award programme on BBC Four on January 27 and announce one film as theoverall winner, said: "This is a shortlist which is long on inspiration.There's more foreign talent here than in the Premiership. But let's hope thatthe standard of refereeing is a little better."

This is the second BBC FourWorld Cinema Award. Last year's winner was Belleville Rendezvous,directed by Sylvain Chomet.