The Oscar campaign for the critically acclaimed film Birdman has accelerated, with the film taking out four of the seven awards at the 4th annual AACTA Awards.
Birdman won best film, best director, best screenplay and best actor for its star, Michael Keaton.
The win follows another best film award for Birdman, at last week's influential Producers Guild of America Awards, which are considered one of the most powerful predictors of Oscar success.
The 4th annual AACTA Awards were held this year for the first time in tandem with the G'Day LA gala, a decade-old red carpet event held in Los Angeles aimed at promoting Australian business to the US.
The actor Chris Hemsworth was named 2015's G'Day LA honouree at the combined event; the award was given to Hemsworth by his The Avengers: Age of Ultron co-star Scarlett Johansson.
Hemsworth said that his life in Los Angeles had brought him many rewards, but none greater than meeting his wife, Spanish-born Elsa Pataky.
The event was held at the Hollywood Palladium.
The guest list included Nicole Kidman, Geoffrey Rush, Jackie Weaver, Tim Minchin, Philip Noyce, Rachel Griffiths, Rebel Wilson, the Las Vegas-based Australian group Human Nature and US actor John Travolta.
Australia's Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull also attended, but did not appear on the red carpet.
According to staff, he used a side entrance.
The event also paid tribute to two high-profile Australians who died in the last year, after spending much of their career based in the US, producer Greg Coote and actor Rod Taylor.
The actor Russell Crowe, who was unable to attend the AACTA Awards in Sydney, came to the LA event to collect his statue for the best film award, for The Water Diviner.
The Water Diviner and The Babadook were jointly named best Australian film on the night.
Launched in 2004, the larger G'Day USA is a trade export promotion with a focus on food and wine, film, arts and culture, as well as businesses which do not draw the celebrity-hungry media lens, such as oil and gas, technology and retail.
Aside from the G'Day LA gala in Los Angeles, the red carpet event which most of the visiting Australian media focus their attention on, there are trade missions in cities across the US, including San Diego, San Francisco, New York and Washington DC.
There are also more serious topics tackled at a raft of panels and talks organised to coincide with the trade mission, such as strategic rivalry in South-East Asia, the growth of China as an economic superpower and the US-Australian alliance.
Both Mr Turnbull and Australia's ambassador to the US, Kim Beazley, appeared at a number of those events, including a private lunch at LA's prestigious California Club last week.
Other political heavyweights in attendance include former US ambassador to Australia Jeffrey Bleich, Australian Consul-General in Los Angeles Karen Lanyon and the chairman of the LA World Affairs Council Terry McCarthy.
The event is managed by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, in tandem with Austrade and Tourism Australia, with much of the cost offloaded onto sponsors including Qantas.
Its purpose is to deliver "commercial outcomes for both nations", though sometimes that message is lost in a sea of coverage with a heavy bias towards the red carpet over the less glittery offices of companies in other US cities such as Chicago and Houston.
In practical terms, those outcomes range from US investment in Australian business, exporting Australian goods to be sold on US supermarket shelves and the launch of Australian businesses in the US.
The AACTA International Awards will be packaged for television as a one-hour special airing Sunday, February 1, 7:30pm AEST on Arena (Foxtel).
LIST OF WINNERS
AACTA International Award for Best Film
Winner: Birdman
AACTA International Award for Best Direction
Winner: Birdman – Alejandro González Iñárritu
AACTA International Award for Best Screenplay
Winner: Birdman – Alejandro González Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Armando Bo
AACTA International Award for Best Lead Actor
Winner: Michael Keaton – Birdman
AACTA International Award for Best Lead Actress
Winner: Julianne Moore – Still Alice
AACTA International Award for Best Supporting Actor
Winner: J K Simmons – Whiplash
AACTA International Award for Best Supporting Actress
Winner: Patricia Arquette – Boyhood
