Golden Butterfly recognize best of Türkiye’s TV, music

ISTANBUL

The 48th Pantene Golden Butterfly Awards, the longest-running award ceremony that takes the pulse of the country’s cinema, TV and music world took place in Istanbul on Dec. 4.

Winners selected by the public and jury votes got their awards in various categories at the ceremony, organized in collaboration between the daily Hürriyet and Pantene, held at Zorlu PSM.

The event, hosted by actor Cem Davran and model-actress Çağla Şikel, reached millions through television broadcast.

Pınar Deniz and Kaan Urgancıoğlu, the leading roles in “Yargı” (The Judgment), were awarded the “Best Actress” and “Best Actor” awards, respectively, while Yargı also received the “Best TV Series” award.

The director of the series, Ali Bilgin, and the screenwriter, Sema Ergenekon, also won awards at the ceremony.

Edis, 31, received the “Best Male Singer” award for the second consecutive time, while “Best Female Singer” award went to Zeynep Bastık, who was the first Turkish artist to perform at a World Cup tournament, as she shared the stage with stars and bands from around the world in a series of concerts in Qatar on Nov. 24.

Ezgi Mola, who nabbed the “Best Comedy Series Actress” award for her role in the “Erşan Kuneri” on Netflix, made a speech about the role of Iran’s morality police, which came under scrutiny after a detainee, 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, died in its custody in mid-September. She expressed her happiness “on behalf of all women.”

Amini had been held for allegedly violating the Islamic Republic’s strict dress codes. Her death unleashed a wave of unrest that has grown into calls for the downfall of Iran’s clerical rulers.

Iran’s chief prosecutor Mohamed Jafar Montazeri said on Saturday the morality police “had been closed,” the semi-official news agency ISNA reported.

Following her speech, Mola quickly became one of the top trending topics in Türkiye on Twitter.

Azra Aksu, who won the “Best Child Actor” award for her role in the TV series “Bir Küçük Gün Işığı” (A Little Sunshine) thanked the entire team and urged everyone to be aware of “animal rights,” which became a hot topic of debate in the country after two people killed a dog by fatally hitting its head with a shovel at an animal rehabilitation center in the central Anatolian province of Konya.

“Please let’s take care of our stray animals. Let’s love, protect, let’s not do any harm. That’s all I want,” Azra said, and received great applause from the hall.

The Golden Butterfly Awards is named after “Kelebek,” the magazine supplement of the daily, which was first published on May 1, 1948.