Today marks the U.S. release date for the movie which was Oscar winner Russell Crowe’s directorial debut.
The Water Diviner was an American-Australian production which opened in limited release in the United States (in actuality, the Keeper can’t recall if it played in her hometown, despite living in a large city).
It had officially opened on December 26th, 2014 in Australia and New Zealand.
The movie was inspired by the true story (or stories) of a father who came from Australia in an attempt to find the grave of his son at Gallipoli.
Budgeted at a little over $22.5 million, as of this date, it has grossed $30.8 million worldwide, and in January 2015, was the highest grossing “Australian-produced” movie of 2014 with a gross of nearly $12.3 million.
In the UK, it made approximately $1.5 million in total, but the movie stopped screening in many UK theaters roughly following a week’s worth of screening. (This was also around the time frame that Fast and Furious 7 – Paul Walker’s last movie in the franchise due to his untimely death – was also released).
The Water Diviner was critically received in Turkey although there were controversies and calls for boycotts regarding what was considered the movie’s ignoring of Turkish atrocities in 1915 (Armenian Genocide, Assyrian Genocide, and Greek Genocide).
The movie went on to win best picture, best-supporting actor (Yılmaz Erdoğan), and best costume design (Tess Schofield) at the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards (or AACTA). There were no Oscar nominations and critics have been mixed in their opinions.