LOS ANGELES • Fresh off their Golden Globe wins, Mexican film-maker Alejandro Inarritu and British director Ridley Scott were among those nominated on Tuesday for Directors Guild of America (DGA) Awards - one of the strongest indicators of Oscar success.

Inarritu, who won the Oscar last year for directing Birdman, was nominated this year for The Revenant, a pioneer-era tale that was filmed in freezing conditions and primitive landscapes.

Scott, 78, who has yet to win an Oscar in his six-decade career, is nominated for The Martian, about an astronaut stranded on Mars.

Inarritu was named Best Director at the Golden Globes on Sunday while The Martian won Best Musical Or Comedy.

Also nominated by the DGA on Thursday was Tom McCarthy for Spotlight, about a probe into the Catholic Church's cover-up of child molestation; Adam McKay for The Big Short, about the 2008 United States financial collapse, and George Miller for the dystopian action film Mad Max: Fury Road.

The DGA nominations, voted on by a group of Hollywood directors, many of whom are also Oscar voters, come ahead of today's Academy Award nominations.

Since 1948, only seven winners of the DGA prize have failed to go on to win the Best Director Oscar.

REUTERS