LOS ANGELES, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- The director of the 2015 American western epic film "The Revenant" won the 68th Directors Guild of America (DGA) award for feature film directing for the second consecutive year on Saturday here, making him the favorite for the best director Oscar.

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu took home the DGA Award for feature films last year for "Birdman," and went on to win the Oscar for best director.

Since 1948, there have only been seven times when the winner of the DGA Award for feature film directing did not win the Oscar for best director.

Inarritu won in a field that also included Tom McCarthy of "Spotlight" , Adam McKay of "The Big Short" , George Miller of "Mad Max: Fury Road" and Ridley Scott of "The Martian".

This year's DGA nominations mirror the Oscar nominations list with one exception -- Scott was left out of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Oscar's list in favor of Lenny Abrahamson, director of "Room."

The inaugural award for the first-time director of a feature film went to Alex Garland, the English novelist, screenwriter and producer of the science fiction thriller "Ex Machina."

Television winners included David Nutter of "Game of Thrones" in the dramatic series category and Chris Addison of "Veep" in comedy series. Dee Rees of "Bessie" won in the television movie/miniseries category.

All DGA winners were voted by the directors from the guild. The DGA awards are always seen as an important precursor to the Academy Awards.