HOLLYWOOD—What a lot of people may not know about awards season is there are nominations that take place from the Writers Guild of America, Producers Guild of America and Directors Guild of America in addition to the Screen Actors Guild of America. Those respective groups tend to have a big impact on predicting possible nominees for Oscar as well as who could be crowned victor.

This week the Directors Guild of America released their nominations for the prizes for filmmaking and television for the year of 2015. Picking up nominations were the usual suspects Alejandro Inarritu for “The Revenant,” Ridley Scott “The Martian,” Adam McKay “The Big Short,” Tom McCarthy “Spotlight” and George Miller “Mad Max: Fury Road.”

These are very interesting picks because left off the list are possible Oscar potentials Steven Spielberg for “Bridge of Spies” and Todd Haynes for “Carol.” So what does this mean? Either the DGA has a better hold on who will get Oscar love or it’s possible that someone like Ryan Coogler “Creed” or F. Gary Gray “Straight Outta Compton” could earn a nomination.

Contenders for the First-Time Feature Film Director prize include Fernando Coimbra “A Wolf at the Door,” Joel Edgerton “The Gift,” Alex Garland “Ex Machina,” Marielle Heller “The Diary of a Teenage Girl” and Laszlo Nemes “Son of Saul.”

The prizes for the DGA will be unveiled on Saturday, February 6 at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Los Angeles. The ceremony will be hosted by “Glee” alum Jane Lynch.