The big winner at this morning’s Oscar Nominations ceremony was The Revenant. The bold, beautiful, dumb movie which has turned “this movie was hard to make” into a campaign of “this is a great movie because it was so hard to make.” The Revenant pulled in twelve nominations. It appears the decision to give Leo DiCaprio the statue for Best Actor has already been culturally decided.

The Revenant is Braveheart of 2015. A big glossy B-movie, dressing itself in historical triumph and technique to hide what is really a pulp production highlighting the exploits of the European domination of the new territory. Perhaps these nominations for The Revenant would be easier to handle if there weren’t so many glaring, embarrassing omissions from the list. Most troubling? For the second consecutive year, there is not a single actor of color named in the twenty acting awards. Not one.

Michael B. Jordan was overlooked, for Creed while Sylvester Stallone was nominated. I wouldn’t expect Koudis Seihon to get a nomination for Mediterranea, despite giving one of the best performances of the year, but No Idris Elba or Abraham Attah for Beasts of No Nation? Not even Will Smith pulled in a nod for his turn as a Nigerian doctor in Concussion.

The list could go on and on. Oscar Isaac for Ex Machina, Benicio Del Toro for Sicario. Jada Pinkett Smith in Magic Mike, XXL. Assa Sylla and Karidja Touré in Girlhood.

When the Oscar Nominations hit last year, and 20 out of 20 acting nods went to white actors, maybe it was possible to hide one’s head in the sand and call it a fluke. But then came 2015. Current Academy President Cheryl Isaacs Boone talked about expanding diversity in Hollywood. She talked about getting studios to “widen their normal stream of thought” to increase roles for non-white actors.

Now, we are in the same position and we have to ask what is happening?

One possibility? Voters are just not watching films with non-white actors. When it comes time to nominate, how else can we understand that not a single non-white actor was considered? The only explanation for excluding Abraham Attah, it would seem, is that voters didn’t see Beasts of No Nation. Which is a shame that falls straight on the Academy.

Again.

So for one more year, instead of seeing an actor of color at the ceremony, we’ll settle for Leo DiCaprio praising the Native extras who graced the screen in The Revenant, and keep waiting for those diversity initiatives to pay off.

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