Mel Gibson ate a Best Actor Award from the Australian Film Institute live on television.
The 48th Annual Australian Film Institute Awards ceremony , honouring the best in film and television acting achievements for the year 2006 in the cinema of Australia , took place on 6 -- 7 December 2006 . Mel Gibson . Director Peter Weir cast him as one of the leads in the critically acclaimed World War I drama Gallipoli ( 1981 ) , which earned Gibson a Best Actor Award from the Australian Film Institute .