Another year, another list of Oscar nominees, another disappointment. But this time people have had enough. Only nominating white actors has put the Academy in serious trouble this year; while last year people only complained about it on Twitter, this time round things have got serious, with many actors and filmmakers of all races condemning the Academy. Some even boycotted the event, forcing the Academy to implement changes to its predominantly white, male and, let’s be frank about this, tired and irrelevant voter base. The frustrating thing for me is that there were plenty of performances out there that could have been nominated. When you look at this year’s films, the idea that the best performances of the year just happened to be by white people simply isn’t true. To remedy this, I’ve picked my favourite BME performances of last year. Hopefully the Oscars will pay more attention next time.

1. Idris Elba: Beasts of No Nation

Two weeks ago, Elba seemed a dead cert for an Oscar nomination. With BAFTA, SAG and Golden Globe nominations under his belt, pretty much everyone expected his name to be called. And yet, by some turn of events, he was left off the list. Perhaps it was to do with Beasts of No Nation being released on Netflix, or the tough subject matter of the film putting voters off. Whatever the reason, a huge oversight it most definitely was. While Elba dominates the screen with his powerful speeches and vicious dialogue, it’s his physicality more than anything that makes his performance, flexing the muscles of both his face and his body to ignite fear in the viewer. Elba’s body and facial expressions often tell us more than his words, turning his otherwise cardboard cutout character into something far more complex.

2. Oscar Isaac: Ex-Machina

Oscar Isaac is on the rise. Ever since the Guatemalan-born actor appeared in the Coen brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis, he hasn’t put a foot wrong, recently seen flying planes in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, doing dodgy deals in A Most Violent Year, and winning Golden Globes for his performance in HBO’s Show Me a Hero. His best performance of the year, however, came in Alex Garland’s Ex Machina, playing an enigmatic CEO and inventor of a creepily realistic A.I. Isaac’s performance is pure genius because we never quite know the intentions of his character. Isaac lets us just close enough to be interested, yet distances himself before we find out too much. It’s a fine line between intrigue and frustration, that a more inexperienced actor would have failed to negotiate. Yet Isaac, with his trademark subtlety, plays it to perfection.

3. Rinko Kikuchi: Kumiko

Kumiko, The Treaure Hunter is a wonderfully bizarre film. Directed by David Zellner, the film follows Kumiko, a woman who, after watching the film Fargo, goes to the frozen tundra of Minnesota to search for a satchel of money that was buried in the film, which, as you can guess, doesn’t exist. While Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter has a slightly off-kilter premise, at the heart of it is a very human performance from Rinko Kikuchi. Without Kikuchi, the film would descend into caricature, or would become one of those well-intentioned, yet unbearably kooky and torturous indie films. Yet Kikuchi keeps us absorbed; her delicate performance draws us in, never quite letting us know whether Kumiko is mentally ill or just naively optimistic, turning an otherwise astute and quirky film into an extremely touching one.

4. Karidja Toure: Girlhood

French director Céline Sciamma has a tendency of picking out complete amateurs and transforming them into movie stars, as seen in previous masterpieces such as Tomboy and Water Lillies. Luckily for us, Karidja Touré is no exception. Don’t be fooled, it may have been Touré’s first film role, but she still has a tough job; she’s in pretty much every frame of Girlhood, a wonderful film documenting girl gang life in urban France. Yet Touré is never intimidated by her role: at times she’s vulnerable, at others she’s wickedly fierce, yet she’s always completely believable. She manages to create a character that is complex, at times difficult, and yet totally relatable and engaging, making the experience of watching a young girl grow, develop and more importantly change right before our eyes into an invigorating experience.

5. Kitana Rodriguez and Mya Taylor: Tangerine

Tangerine is quite an extraordinary film. Not only was it the singularly most indescribable film of 2015, one critic getting close by dubbing it the “the best transgender revenge comedy drama of the year”, it was shot completely on an iPhone on the streets of Los Angeles. While films shot on a phone can prove extremely naff, Tangerine is undoubtedly the most vibrant and electrifying film of the year, with its two lead actresses screaming, swearing, singing, smoking and strutting their way through 88 minutes of pure magic. However, don’t judge Tangerine before you’ve seen it; while it may look like a sass fest from beginning to end, thanks to Rodriguez’s and Taylor’s performances, it’s not only full of attitude but also incredibly moving and poignant, plunging you head-first into the world of transgender sex workers.