LOS ANGELES (AP) – For decades, Martin Scorsese has had the deepest respect of his peers in Hollywood. This awards season, he finally may come home with the trophies to prove it.

Scorsese’s “The Departed” – his return to the vivid, bloody crime genre whose modern conventions he helped pioneer with films such as “Taxi Driver” and “Goodfellas” – was a leading contender for Saturday night’s top film honor at the Directors Guild of America Awards,

The other nominees were Bill Condon for the musical “Dreamgirls,” Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris for the road-trip tale “Little Miss Sunshine,” Stephen Frears for the palace saga “The Queen” and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu for the ensemble drama “Babel.”

This was Scorsese’s seventh nomination for the Directors Guild honor, a prize he has never won, though the group did give him a lifetime achievement award in 2003.

“The Departed” also marked his sixth nomination for best director at the Academy Awards, an honor that also has eluded him.

A sixth loss at the Oscars would put Scorsese in the record books as the filmmaker with the most nominations without winning.

But many awards watchers feel this is Scorsese’s year, labeling him the front-runner for the Feb. 25 Oscars. A Directors Guild win would help give him the inside track.

The guild prize is a solid forecast for who might win the directing honor at the Academy Awards. Only six times in the 58-year history of the guild awards has the winner failed to go on to receive the directing Oscar.

Scorsese, Inarritu and Frears were the only three of the five guild nominees who also earned best-director slots for the Oscars. The other Oscar nominations went to Clint Eastwood for the World War II epic “Letters From Iwo Jima” and Paul Greengrass for the Sept. 11 docudrama “United 93.”

“Dreamgirls” had been viewed as a potential best-picture favorite at the Oscars, but it missed out on a nomination, as did director Condon. With Condon out of the race, Scorsese’s path to Oscar victory could prove a bit easier.

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On the Net:

Directors Guild: http://www.dga.org

AP-ES-02-03-07 1750EST