Posted on: Friday, January 25, 2002

Directors Guild picks nominees for honors

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — The Directors Guild of America imported most nominees from overseas for its top filmmaking honors Tuesday.

Ron Howard, of "A Beautiful Mind," was the only American picked for the competition.

The other nominees: New Zealand director Peter Jackson for "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring"; Australian Baz Luhrmann for "Moulin Rouge"; and British-born filmmakers Christopher Nolan for "Memento" and Ridley Scott for "Black Hawk Down."

Notably absent from the list was Robert Altman, an American, who won the Golden Globe on Sunday for "Gosford Park."

The DGA snub could mean he has little chance of an Academy Award win if nominated this year because the Oscar is also determined by peers in the directing community.

In the 54 years since the guild began distributing its award, the winner has gone on to win the best director Oscar all but five times. Last year was one of those times: The guild picked Ang Lee for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" while the Oscar went to Steven Soderbergh for "Traffic."

The winner will be announced at a March 9 ceremony.