Los Angeles, Jan. 8 (CNA) Taiwan-born director Ang Lee was nominated for a prestigious Directors Guild of America (DGA) award for the third time in his career Tuesday, getting the nod for his direction of the shipwreck epic "Life of Pi."

The U.S.-based filmmaker won the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film the previous two times he was nominated, first for his 2000 martial-arts fantasy thriller "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and again for his cowboy love story "Brokeback Mountain" in 2006.

His work on "Brokeback Mountain" also earned him the Academy Award for best director that same year.

This time around, Lee will vie with well-known past winners -- Steven Spielberg (Lincoln), Kathryn Bigelow (Zero Dark Thirty) and Tom Hooper (Les Miserables) -- and first-time nominee Ben Affleck (Argo) for the DGA best director award.

The DGA field is widely seen as one of Hollywood's most accurate barometers of who will be nominated for the Academy Awards. The list of this year's Oscar nominees is expected to be released on Jan. 10.

Over the past 64 years, 58 DGA best director award winners eventually went on to win the Academy Award in the same category.

Lee's DGA nod was the latest accolade earned by the 3D film "Life of Pi," nearly 80 percent of which was shot in Taiwan.

Two U.S. film critic groups -- the Kansas City Film Critics Circle and the Las Vegas Film Critics Society -- have honored Lee as director of 2012 and the lost-at-sea story has also won nominations for many other awards, including three at the 70th Golden Globe Awards for best motion picture, best director and best score.

The film, a magical realism adaption of the Canadian novelist Yann Martel's 2002 Man Booker Prize-winning novel of the same name, has also been a box office success.

It has emerged as Lee's highest-grossing film since its premiere last November. Its worldwide box office receipts have exceeded US$400 million.

(By Oscar Wu and Sofia Wu)
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