6) Abraham Attah – Beasts Of No Nation
There aren’t many filmmakers who’d have the courage to build their entire movie around a child actor, much less an untrained newcomer who’s just entered his teens. But Cary Fukunaga, he of the True Detective season one, episode four tracking shot, is no shrinking violet; for his third feature, the director chose to adapt Uzodinma Iweala’s harrowing Beasts of No Nation and cast just such a child actor in the lead.
Luckily for Fukunaga, Abraham Attah is an incredible find, a match for any seasoned pro in Fukunaga’s adap of Beasts. As Agu, the boy taken from his unnamed West African home and made a child soldier by a ferocious warlord (Idris Elba, in another great performance), Attah runs the gamut of cinematic emotion and leaves a powerful, haunting impression.