Pete Evans skewered by host Tom Gleeson at Australian film and TV awards

Tom Gleeson did not hold back as host of the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards (ACTAAs), skewering some of Australia's biggest stars.

The comedian targeted controversial celebrity chef Pete Evans during his hilarious opening monologue at the awards, which were held at The Star in Sydney on Monday night.

"I'm your host for this evening, I'll be taking you through the night and I'll be choosing my words very carefully because TV shows used to get cancelled, [but] now people get cancelled … like Pete Evans," Gleeson began.

"He was dropped from I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here. It's a missed opportunity for Channel 10 though, the first challenge could have been 'try this vaccination' … or 'stand under this 5G tower' … or 'be credible'."

The comedian also took aim at SAS Australia, and Plate of Origin.

"SAS Australia was a huge success this year for Channel 7. Congratulations, they put celebrities through their paces.

"It was so entertaining that they almost forgot about the war crimes," Gleeson said.

"This year Channel 7 also poached Gary Mehigan and Matt Preston. They left MasterChef to launch Plate Of Origin, which I suspect completed its only season," he said about the low-rating show.

"Plate of Origin was a TV competition where Gary Mehigan and Matt Preston unknowingly competed to answer the question, 'Was MasterChef's ratings success due to the talent or the format?' Spoiler alert, it was the format."

The 2020 AACTAs were broken into two ceremonies due to Covid-19 – a film ceremony in the afternoon and a TV/online ceremony in the early evening.

Rove McManus and Susie Youssef hosted the afternoon film awards, with Tom Gleeson taking the reigns for the TV ceremony.

Guests who attended at least one of the ceremonies included Delta Goodrem, Tim Minchin, Matt Okine, Abe Forsythe, Eliza Scanlen, Anne Edmonds and Melissa Leong.