Australians in Film throws its Breakthrough awards bash every year to celebrate Aussie up-and-comers and raise a few while they’re at it. So the ambience is more relaxed than the usual awards in Hollywood. “It’s purposely informal and casual and chatty, not rubber chicken-y,” says board member Susie Dobson, an independent publicist who produced the event.
Working within the nonprofit’s limited budget, Dobson created a stylish party at Blue on Blue at the Avalon Hotel in Beverly Hills on May 3 for 150 that didn’t betray its modest price tag. Although decor was simple, the event was heavy on food and drink, which consisted of Australian-style hors d’oeuvres with lamb and spicy shrimp as well as Aussie vodka and wine. Images by Lighting painted the white cabanas with turquoise light and projected a gobo of the Australians in Film logo, with the group’s trademark boomerang, on the bottom of the pool.
Honorees Emilie de Ravin, Isla Fisher, and Greg McLean accepted
their awards at a temporary podium and kept their speeches mercifully short so
that the group could get back to the business at hand—networking and drinking. A
few times during the evening, a fire-eating stiltwalker and a contortionist
inside a giant see-through sphere interrupted the minglefest to stage mini
performances around and in the pool.
“One year we had synchronized swimmers in the pool, another year we had aerialists over the pool, and this year we had people on the pool,” Dobson said.
