Aviator flying high

Michael Mann and Graham King, who produced director Martin Scorsese's Howard Hughes saga The Aviator took the top award at the Producers Guild of America awards, held in Los Angeles at the weekend.

The Aviator, which also won the Golden Globe for best drama, is among the favourites in this year's Oscars race. Nominations for the 77th Oscars will be announced this week.

The production team for Angels in America (HBO), the adaptation of Tony Kushner's Pulitzer Prize-winning play about Americans facing Aids in the 1980s, won the award for best long-form television.

The Stanley Kramer award, named for the producer who often tackled social issues, was shared by two productions - Hotel Rwanda, the real-life tale of a hotel manager who saved 1268 people from the 1994 Rwandan genocide, and Innocent Voices, a fictionalised version of one boy's experience during the Salvadoran civil war.

Other winners included: episodic drama, The Sopranos, HBO; episodic comedy, Curb Your Enthusiasm, HBO; non-fiction television, The Amazing Race, CBS; variety television, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Syndicated.