Directors Guild nominees include ‘Spotlight,’ ‘The Revenant’ and ‘The Big Short’

McKay, 47, who is best known for Will Ferrell comedy blockbusters such as “Anchorman”, received his first DGA Award nomination for a feature film for “The Big Short”, a comedy-drama about the 2007-08 financial crisis.

This year’s nominees are Alejandro G. Inarritu for The Revenant; Tom McCarthy for Spotlight; Adam McKay for The Big Short; George Miller for Mad Max: Fury Road; and Ridley Scott for The Martian. The Australian filmmaker was nominated for a Golden Globe and won the Los Angeles Film Critics Award for his direction.

Notably missing from the list: Carol’s Todd Haynes, Bridge of Spies director (and industry legend) Steven Spielberg, and Creed’s Ryan Coogler, who could have prevented this from being yet another in a long lineup of white, male directors receiving awards. Since the Oscars expanded the best picture field, only one DGA-nominated movie has failed to also land in the best-picture nominees: David Fincher’s “Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”.

Scott has also been nominated for Thelma and Louise (1991), Gladiator (2000) and Black Hawk Down (2001).

Last year, Clint Eastwood got into the DGA and yet didn’t make the Oscar cut, in lue of Bennett Miller.

This marks Inarritu’s third DGA nomination to date. In the six years since the academy expanded the best-picture category, the DGA and Oscars have overlapped 23 out of 30 times.

The DGA also revealed the first nominees for a brand new award, the Outstanding Directorial Achievement of a First-Time Feature Film Director. The category’s inaugural nominees are: Alex Garland (“Ex Machina”), Joel Edgerton (“The Gift”), Marielle Heller (“Diary of a Teenage Girl”), Laszlo Nemes (“Son of Saul”) and Fernando Coimbra (“A Wolf at the Door”).