Turkish Actor Yilmaz Erdogan won the AACTA (Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts) Award as Best Supporting Actor for his role in the Water Diviner. Mr Erdogan is the first Turkish Actor to be given the award.

Oscar winning actor Russell Crowe’s first directorial debut The Water Diviner, and Jennifer Kent thriller The Babadook have both won the AACTA Award for best film, marking the first time that two titles have shared the country’s top film prize.

The event in Sydney, hosted this year by actresses Cate Blanchett and Deborah Mailman, is only the 4th annual AACTA Awards but they were the result of an overhaul of the AFI (Australian Film Institute) Awards, which were established in 1969.

Gladiator star Crowe’s directorial debut, The Water Diviner, is about an Australian farmer (Crowe) who travels to Gallipoli four years after the end of the First World War to find his three sons. While there, he falls in love with a Turkish woman.

The Water Diviner was the local box office hit of last year but it is the industry that decides the best film recipient. The Water Diviner won total of 3 AACTA Awards including the Best Costume Design.

ATA-A congratulates Mr Erdogan and wishes that his success, which coincides with the 100th anniversary of the Turkish Cinema and the ANZAC Centenary, will lead more Turkish actors and actresses to be casted at the Australian movies.