Held in the glorious State Theatre on Market street in Sydney, the FilmInk Movie Extra Awards brought together some of Australia's finest actors and filmmakers to have an award with a definite cheeky tone.

The Filmink awards are famous for their lack of poise, preferring to give awards for Best Nude Scene and Best Monster, rather than go down predictable lines. For the most part, it's worked - the award show has increased in popularity over the years, this year filling the theatre with film professionals and screaming fans.

Hosted by local Cronulla-born actor, Brendan Cowell, the show had a sense of wit, complimented by Cowell's ability to maintain an air of levity in the proceedings.

"We're not saying there aren't any good Australian actors," Cowell dryly noted, "but none of the good ones would come to our awards!"

The crowd laughed with that ease of self-deprecation; one of Australia's greatest hobbies is, perhaps, making fun of Australia, and the tone of the awards reflected that. When the award for Best Aussie in an Overseas Performance came out, and Cate Blanchett had won for her role in the Dylan-biopic I'm Not There, a tall, funny-looking man in drag accepted the award on her behalf.

It was a supremely grotesque and laughable event, orchestrated, I suppose, by the snickering FilmInk Organizers. There was even a moment of quiet poignancy as the drag queen dedicated the award to the memory of Heath Ledger.

Forty minutes before, I was waiting in the lobby of the State Theatre, poking at my photographer, insisting that he take a photo of Keisha Castle-Hughes, the star from Whale Rider and one of the leads in the upcoming "Hey, Hey, It's Ester Blueburger". She looked uncomfortably overdressed and slightly melancholic, forcing a smile for the cameras.

She passed by so quick that we only had time to get a quick picture and, by then, the Umbilical Brothers, a spider-limbed Australian comedy duo, were laughing and pointing at the photographer for his tiny digital camera.

I stood back from the crowd, thoughfully eating a mint Cornetto, appreciating that the beautiful State Theatre could hold an event like this, packing the lobby with hordes of young adults, dressed to kill, hoping that someone would notice them, take a photo and perhaps offer them a role in a movie.

Later, when Emma Booth won the award for Best Newcomer, she gave a tediously dull acceptance speech, reading thanks out from a list with unfeigned indifference. Her long legs seemed to wriggle diaphanously past the pulpit, shimmering in the spotlight, soaking in the digital flashes from the audience. An executive producer, sitting next to me, leaned over and said "Oh, yeah!" in a lusty voice.

Booth seemed less than glamourous, though, compared to the winner of the Peter Finch Lifetime Achievement Award, Colin Friels. White-haired and weary, Friels accepted the award with great humilty and humour, his years of experience evident in the fact that he held the crowd spellbound as he deflected his attention away from himself. As the lights dimmed and the stage screen lit up with selected moments from Friels life, it became readily apparent of the weight that he's carried through his career; from roles as a young man full of angst to his current, world-weary, but affable character, Friels holds, on the ridge of his bent shoulders, the burning trails of Aussie actors effervescing around the world.

The Filmink Movie Extra Awards came in, fast and low, and made for a quick getaway. Cowell kept the show running at a brisk pace, and most of the award winners were tastefully brief as well. As a result, as the crowd got up to leave, it was just before 10, excitement murmured through the crowd as the inexhaustible among us headed off the be seduced by vodka martinis at the afterparty - someone cried out 'It's only Wednesday!', and the crowd leaped upon her with merciless hunger, dragging her, laughing, onto the bus, promising to help her forget the ominous dawning of tomorrow.