The Directors Guild of America has announced the nominations for outstanding directorial achievement in feature film 2006, and there's a few surprises, such as no Clint Eastwood, anywhere.

The announcement was made in a press release on the DGA official site and found through the BBC who come out with a couple of interesting facts.

Fifty-two out of 58 DGA award winners have gone on to win Oscars...

...The films in the DGA's shortlist are identical to the nominees picked by the Producers Guild of America last week.

Could we be seeing an Oscar snub of Eastwood? Here are the nominees:

BILL CONDON - Dreamgirls
JONATHAN DAYTON & VALERIE FARIS - Little Miss Sunshine
STEPHEN FREARS - The Queen
ALEJANDRO GONZÁLEZ IÑÁRRITU - Babel
MARTIN SCORSESE - The Departed

Well, well. Scorsese returns for his seventh nomination, and a deserving one too. I'm surprised by a few of the names here and of the missing ones. What do you think? Are these the best directors of the last year? Who do you tip to win this battle?