Tom Hardy plays Max Rockatansky in a scene from "Mad...

Tom Hardy plays Max Rockatansky in a scene from "Mad Max: Fury Road," which is among the 10 films the Producers Guild of America has nominated this year. The winner will be announced on Jan. 23, 2016. Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures /Village Roadshow Pictures / Jasin Boland

“Spotlight,” “The Martian” and “Mad Max: Fury Road” are among the 10 nominated films announced Tuesday by the Producers Guild of America.

The guild’s top award is considered the strongest single indicator of the Academy Award for best picture.

The guild won’t announce the winner of its Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures until Jan. 23, but its current nominees offer a possible reflection of the 10 upcoming Oscar nominees for best picture, which will be announced on Jan. 14.

Several of the guild’s nominees were to be expected, such as the adventure epic “The Revenant,” starring Leonardo DiCaprio, and Steven Spielberg’s Cold War drama “Bridge of Spies.” Adam McKay’s “The Big Short,” a comedy-drama set against the 2008 housing crisis, was also nominated.

The more surprising nominees included the modest sci-fi film “Ex-Machina,” the crime thriller “Sicario” and the romantic drama “Brooklyn.” Those films have received scant attention this awards season, although Saoirse Ronan, the star of “Brooklyn,” was named best actress by the New York Film Critics Circle.

The biopic “Straight Outta Compton,” about the rap group N.W.A., also received a nomination. That bodes well for the film’s inclusion at the Oscars, which in past years has been criticized as overly focused on films with largely Caucasian casts.

Films that did not make the cut were Todd Haynes’ acclaimed drama “Carol,” starring Cate Blanchett as a lesbian woman living in the 1950s, and “The Danish Girl,” starring Eddie Redmayne as a transgender artist. Also left off the list were the Netflix original film “Beasts of No Nation,” Quentin Tarantino’s “The Hateful Eight” and “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.”

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