The late Australian actor Heath Ledger was awarded one of his country's most prestigious film awards on Saturday for his final role as The Joker in the Batman movie
The Dark Knight.
Ledger, 28, who died of an accidental overdose of painkillers and other medicines in his New York apartment 11 months ago, was posthumously awarded the AFI (Australian Film Institute) international award for best actor.
Guests at a packed awards ceremony in Melbourne's Princess Theater rose to their feet clapping, but with some in tears, to pay tribute to the actor who was nominated for an Oscar for his role as a taciturn gay cowboy in 2005's
Brokeback Mountain.
"It has been without a doubt the most difficult year, losing such a loved family member," said his sister Kate, fighting back tears as she accepted the award alongside Ledger's parents.
"We are so proud of him and humbly accept this award on behalf of his beautiful daughter (Matilda) who we will cherish forever."
The AFI, celebrating its 50th-annual award ceremony, paid tribute to Ledger, describing him as "ground-breaking actor trapped in the body of a leading man".
"He was the untamed spirit many of us wish we could be. May the legend live on," an AFI tribute said.
Cate Blanchett won the equivalent award for women for her role in
Elizabeth: The Golden Age. A drama about a teenage boy learning to live with an autistic brother won the night's top award for best film.
The Black Balloon, the favorite to win best film and nominated in 11 categories, beat
The Jammed,
The Square and
Unfinished Sky for the coveted award.
The film, which opens in the United States this month, picked up various other awards including best supporting actor and actress for Luke Ford and Toni Collette, while director and co-writer Elissa Down won best direction and original screenplay.
Unfinished Sky, a rural romantic drama which received 10 nominations, received the award for best adapted screenplay and its leading actors, William McInnes and Monic Hendrickx, took home the awards for best lead actor and actress.
In television, the critically acclaimed crime drama
Underbelly about the Melbourne gangworld dominated the night, winning six of eight awards for which it was nominated, including best TV drama series.
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91 Comments
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By the way I said I was swiss on the issue
All in all the speaking of the movie, i thought it was his best performance and im sad we couldnt watch him expand on his newly found talent
Again, Heath's role as Joker was the most profound and haunting performance I've seen this year. Anything earned will add to his legacy, as short lived as it was.
Heath deserves the Oscar as well.
Also, you're beef now is that this is America so we can't have druggies winning awards for ACTING?! Come on now. If you hadn't noticed, America has gone down the shithole at a reasonably fast pace, and drug abusers are the least of our problems, shitface. Rapists, murderers, stupid political fights and stupid religous fights, economic problems...our country is filled with it, so I wouldn't be thinking that America is too good to have an overdose victim win a goddamn Oscar. It should be the least of your worries. If he killed someone or caused physical harm on someone else that would be frowned upon, then yeah, we'd have a problem. He didn't, so we don't. Get over it.
On a side note, get off the site, spammer