A dancer, didgeridoo player, and one of Australia’s best-known actors, David Gulpilil’s breakthrough performance was in Nicholas Roeg’s Walkabout (1971) at age 16. Gulpilil’s legendary screen career, now into its fifth decade, encompasses some of the most renowned works in Australian cinema history, including the top two highest grossing Australian films of all time, Crocodile Dundee (1986) and Australia (2008). He also starred in Mad Dog Morgan (1976), AFI Best Film winner Stormboy (1976), Peter Weir’s thriller The Last Wave (1977), Philip Noyce’s Golden Globe®-nominated Rabbit Proof Fence (2002) and John Hillcoat’s The Proposition (2005). Charlie’s Country, which he also co-wrote, is his third film with friend and filmmaker Rolf de Heer following The Tracker (2000) and Ten Canoes (2006). For his leading role he won the 2014 Cannes Un Certain Regard Prize for Best Actor.
The Asia Pacific Screen Academy expresses its respect for and acknowledgement of the South East Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. We pay our respects to the Traditional Owners of country, including the custodial communities on whose land works are created and celebrated by the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. We acknowledge the continuing connection to land, waters and communities. We also pay our respects to Elders, past and emerging. We recognise the integral role Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and First Nations peoples continue to play in storytelling and celebration spaces.
