The Directors Guild of America announced its nominations for the best directors of the year.

This year's nominees were Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Adam McKay, Tom McCarthy, George Miller and Ridley Scott. These nominees came from films that have been popular throughout awards season and with the Guilds. The nominations for these directors bring them one step closer to the Oscar as most DGA winners go on to win Oscars for Best Director.

Out of the five nominees Inarritu received his third nomination after being nominated for "Babel" and winning for "Birdman." His work on "the Revenant" has already been recognized by the Golden Globes and was nominated for the BAFTA and Critics' Choice.

Scott's nomination for "The Martian' marks his fourth nomination as he has previously been nominated for "Thelma and Louise," Gladiator" and "Black Hawk Down." Scott's nomination follows up being shortlisted by the BAFTA and Critics Choice.

Meanwhile, McCarthy, McKay and Miller received their first nominations for the DGA.

The DGA nominations did snub two big directors most expected to see on the list. Todd Haynes failed to be shortlisted for "Carol," adding another blow to the film's award status. Steven Spielberg was also not recognized for "Bridge of Spies" after leading the BAFTA nominations.

A snub at the DGA is a big deal as most winners at the Academy Awards end up being nominated for the DGA. However, not always do DGA nominees translate to Oscars. As a result, both Spielberg and Haynes should not lose hope.

As a matter of fact, in the past few years the Academy has picked numerous Indie film directors over big studio pictures. For example, in 2015, Bennett Miller was nominated for "Foxcatcher" over Clint Eastwood for "American Sniper." In 2014 Paul Greengrass's DGA nomination for "Captain Phillips" did not translate to the Oscars. Instead Alexander Payne was nominated for "Nebraska."

In 2013 the DGA and Academy diverged by three contenders. Whereas the DGA nominated Ben Affleck for "Argo," Kathryn Bigelow for "Zero Dark Thirty" and Tom Hooper for "Les Miserables," the Academy picked three smaller film directors including "Silver Linings Playbook's" David O. Russell, Michael Haneke for "Amour" and Benh Zeitlin for "Beasts of the Southern Wild."

The last time the DGA and the Academy picked the same directors was in 2010 when Kathryn Bigelow won for "The Hurt Locker." However, that year was the first time that the Academy had ten Best Picture nominees and their voting system was different. The year also had a good mix between Indie and studio films.

Of this year's nominees, four of the five films are studio pictures, which is an overwhelming number considering last year's five directing nominees at the Oscars came from five non-studio distributors. The Academy has always been known for throwing curveballs and among those surprises have been Miller for "Foxcatcher," Pedro Almodovar for "Talk to Her," Mike Leigh for "Vera Drake," Jason Reitman for "Juno,' Stephen Daldry for "The Reader" and Terrence Malick for "the Tree of Life."

All of these films were Independent and had not received the buzz other films did in their given year. As a result, with such a divisive and unpredictable year, expect the Academy to throw in an unexpected or DGA snubbed name.

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