Abiola Oke For CNN: “The Oscars Snubbed 'Beasts Of No Nation’ Because Of Its Blackness"
- Idris Elba and Abraham Attah were some of this year's most egregious Oscar snubs argues Abiola Oke.
Beasts of No Nation: The most shocking Oscars snub?Abiola Oke, Special for CNN
New York (CNN) "Beasts of No Nation" was one of the best films of 2015, yet it didn't receive a single Oscar nomination. In fact, out of 528 nominations in the Best Picture category, no film with an all-black cast has ever been nominated for Best Picture. Even space has more gravity than the number of all black-cast films nominated.
In the spirit of fairness, "Slumdog Millionaire" and "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" which featured virtually all non-white casts, received nominations and won respectively.
It might be irresponsible but certainly not irrational of me to suggest that one of the reasons "Beasts" was snubbed at the Oscars was because of the racial make-up of its cast.
When you consider the Academy's 87-year history of ignoring black performances—only 15 African Americans have won the honors for acting—the thought of unintentional bias doesn't seem so absurd.