The Directors Guild of America(DGA) has nominated past winners Ang Lee and Steven Spielberg and relativenewcomers George Clooney, Paul Haggis and Bennett Miller for its 2005Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film award.

The DGA award is consideredone of the most accurate predictors of Academy Award success: the Guild'sfeature directing winner has gone on to take the best director Oscar 51 timesin the last 57 years.

Lee's citation for FocusFeatures' Brokeback Mountain ishis third DGA nomination. He won the award in 2000 for Crouching Tiger,Hidden Dragon.

Spielberg's recognition for Universal'sMunich is his tenth DGA nomination.He has won the award three times, for Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List and The Color Purple.

The other three directors areall getting their first DGA nominations, Clooney being cited for WarnerIndependent Pictures' Good Night, and Good Luck, Haggis for Lionsgate's Crash and Bennett Miller for UA/Sony Pictures Classics' Capote.