Paramount’s hopes for a Best Picture Oscar for “True Grit” may have been dealt a fatal blow today by the Directors Guild of America. The DGA left Joel and Ethan Coen off the list of nominees for its award, the oldest and long the most reliably predictive of the pre-academy honors.

Both the presumptive front-runners, David Fincher for Sony’s “The Social Network” and Tom Hooper for the Weinsteins’ “The King’s Speech,” made the list, as did Darren Aronofsky for “Black Swan,” Christopher Nolan for Warners’ “Inception,” and David O. Russell for “The Fighter,” a collaboration between Paramount, Relativity Media and the Weinsteins.

Last year, the DGA nominations lined up exactly with Oscar’s Best Director nods, which are closely linked to the Best Picture race. With the Best Picture field expanded to 10 last year while Best Director nods remain at five, only films with corresponding director nods are considered realistic contenders in the Best Picture race.

The DGA award, which has matched Oscar’s Best Director trophy all but six times in the DGA’s 62-year-history, will be presented on Jan. 29 at the Hollywood and Highland Center.