Rove McManus was the master-of-ceremonies and Colin Farrell the surprise A-List guest presenter.
The beer and wine flowed freely at a rooftop ceremony in Beverly Hills where Melbourne actress Bella Heathcote was awarded the Heath Ledger Scholarship and Home and Away graduates Ryan Kwanten and Chris Hemsworth were honoured with Breakthrough Awards.
The annual Breakthrough Awards ceremony, organised by Los Angeles-based organisation Australians in Film and held at the Thompson Hotel in Beverly Hills, pinpoints young Australian talent in Hollywood.
Past honorees include Sam Worthington, Mia Wasikowska, Isla Fisher, Abbie Cornish and Jesse Spencer and the event is attended by 200 Hollywood film executives and LA-based members of the Australian film and television industry.
"They certainly know how to put on a good party," Hemsworth, 26, who just completed filming the big budget comic book adaptation of Thor, directed by Kenneth Branagh and co-starring Natalie Portman and Anthony Hopkins, told AAP.
Hemsworth, who left Home and Away in 2007, packed on 10kg of muscle to play the Marvel Comic's Norse god, Thor, set for release in May next year.
Working on the Australian TV soap, however, was the best preparation for a Hollywood career, he said.
"On Home and Away we shot 20 scenes a day and five episodes a week. It is a lot higher work rate than anything here in Hollywood," said Hemsworth, whose younger brother Liam is also enjoying a hot Hollywood career and is dating teen queen Miley Cyrus.
Kwanten, who left Home and Away in 2002, is one of the leads in the hit US vampire TV series True Blood and, when accepting his award, told the ceremony his father Eddie back in Sydney Skyped the night before with a few tips on what to say in the speech.
"Dad, who likes to think he is a pretty good public speaker, said 'Ryan, you have to tell them how proud you are to be an Australian and you have to use the term no worries'," Kwanten said.
"And he said 'Talk about sausage sizzles. Let them know in Australia we turn everything into sausage sizzles'.
"Then he wrapped it up with this little pearl of wisdom: 'Tell them how good your old man looks in a pair of Sluggos'.
"For you Americans that's Speedos."
Farrell made a surprise appearance to present 22-year-old Heathcote with the Australians in Film Heath Ledger Scholarship.
A panel of judges including another of Ledger's A-List friends, Jude Law, and director Gregor Jordan selected Heathcote, who had a recurring role in Neighbours in 2009 and appears in the World War I drama Beneath Hill 60. She beat 100 other contenders to the scholarship, which is designed to give a young Australian actor a shot at making it big in Hollywood.
The scholarship, which includes $10,000 cash and Qantas flights, is supported by Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, Michelle Williams and the Ledger family, with the Perth-born Oscar winner's mother Sally and sister Kate attending the ceremony.
"The judges saw something very special in Bella Heathcote," Farrell said.
"She is very beautiful but underneath all of that hideous beauty, she has the true talent, energy and that special something that Heath had."
Ledger, who died in January 2008 from an accidental prescription drug overdose, would have approved of Heathcote as the recipient of the scholarship, Sally and Kate Ledger said.
"Bella is absolutely delightful and I think she will go a long way," Sally said.
The Ledger family remains in close contact with Ledger's daughter, four-year-old Matilda, who he had with his Brokeback Mountain co-star and fiancee Williams.
"Matilda is amazing," Sally said.
"We spent Christmas together and I lived a week with her in February. That was really quite precious."
Kate said Matilda is a mix of her brother and Williams.
"We used to joke about Matilda when Heath was alive that 'It's Heath in bikini' and 'It's Heath in a dress'," Kate said.
"She's very much like him but I'm starting to see a lot of Michelle in her."
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