The Art Directors Guild has been handing out its own kudos since 1996 when their choice for best art direction went to "The English Patient," foreshadowing what was to happen at the Academy Awards. Since then, the guild has expanded its categories from one to three with awards for period, fantasy, and contemporary production design.

Despite that first double win for Stuart Craig, a guild honoree has gone on to win the Oscar in only six of the past 12 years. And the guild's track record at predicting the eventual Oscar nominees has been average at best. Even after expanding to two categories in 2000, the gild nominees only included 35 of the 50 Oscar nominees from 1996 to 2005.

Two years ago - after the guild split period and fantasy into separate categories - their fifteen choices did include all five Oscar nominees with the fantasy winner, "Pan's Labyrinth," prevailing at the Academy Awards as well. Last year, the guild also got all five Oscar nominees, four of which were drawn from the Guild's period category. However, the Oscars snubbed the guild's period pick "There Will Be Blood" in favor of "Sweeney Todd."

This year's nominees are:

Period Films

"Changeling"Production Designer: James J. Murakami
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" Production Designer: Donald Graham Burt
"Doubt" Production Designer: David Gropman
"Frost/Nixon" Production Designer: Michael Corenblith
"Milk" Production Designer: Bill Groom

Fantasy Films

"The Dark Knight" Production Designer: Nathan Crowley
"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" Production Designer: Guy Hendrix Dyas
"Iron Man" Production Designer: J. Michael Riva
"The Spiderwick Chronicles" Production Designer: James Bissell
"WALL-E" Production Designer: Ralph Eggleston