LOS ANGELES — Steve McQueen gained his first directors guild nomination on Tuesday for his grim historic saga “12 Years a Slave,” securing the British director’s place as a top contender for an Academy Award.

Other first-time nominees were Alfonso Cuaron for his lost-in-space odyssey “Gravity,” and Paul Greengrass for his Somali pirate thriller “Captain Phillips.”

Past nominee David O. Russell received a bid for his con-artist tale “American Hustle.” He was nominated in 2010 for his boxing drama “The Fighter.”

Martin Scorsese earned his 11th nomination for his high-finance extravaganza, “The Wolf of Wall Street.” Scorsese won a Directors Guild of America award in 2006 for the crime tale “The Departed” and again in 2010 for his work on HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire.”

Scorsese was honored with the DGA lifetime achievement award in 2003.

If McQueen wins this year for “12 Years a Slave,” he would become the first black director to earn the guild’s feature film accolade.

“To be included in such an amazing group of filmmakers and also to be honored by my peers makes me feel very humble and proud,” he said in a statement.

John Singleton was the first black director to be nominated for the award for “Boyz n the Hood” in 1991, and Lee Daniels was nominated in 2009 for “Precious.”

In 2013, the guild elected TV director Paris Barclay as its first African-American, openly gay president. Last month, McQueen was named best director by the New York Film Critics Circle for “12 Years a Slave.” The film has been nominated for four Screen Actors Guild awards and seven Golden Globes.

“Gravity,” “Captain Phillips” and “American Hustle” also received Globe and SAG bids. “The Wolf of Wall Street” made the Globe list.

The winner of the DGA award usually goes on to win the directing statuette at the Oscars. Nominations for those awards will be announced on Jan. 16.