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Slumdog Millionaire, The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button and cult movie The Dark Knight were the big winners at the Art Directors Guild Awards on Saturday.

Button claimed the Excellence in Production Design for a Period Film, The Dark Knight picked up the Fantasy Film prize and Slumdog Millionaire was named the Best Contemporary Film at the black-tie ceremony held at the International Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills.

Honorary awards were presented to Production Designer Paul Sylbert for Lifetime Achievement, and to iconic filmmaker George Lucas for Outstanding Contribution to Cinematic Imagery.

And five production designers were inducted into the ADG Hall of Fame - Ted Haworth, Joseph McMillan Johnson, Romain Johnston, John Meehan and Harold Michelson.

Meanwhile, Mad Men, Little Britain U.S.A., John Adams and Weeds picked up awards for design excellence in television.

The 80th Annual Academy Awards telecast was named the Best Awards Show, Variety, Music, or Non-Fiction Program.

Tina Fey stole the show at the 60th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards, receiving top honours on Sunday's event for her hit U.S. comedy series 30 Rock.

The series - starring creator Fey, Alec Baldwin and Tracy Morgan - won the Outstanding Comedy Series award, while TV series Mad Men claimed its own top honour for Outstanding Drama Series.

Fey and Baldwin each took home top honours of Outstanding Lead Actress and Actor in a Comedy Series for their roles on the show.

Fey took the stage, musing of her honours: "I thank my parents for somehow raising me to have confidence that is disproportionate with my looks and abilities. Well done. That is what all parents should do."

Historical series John Adams - executive produced by Tom Hanks - was the most-nominated show of the year, taking in five awards of its record 23 nods, including a win for Outstanding Miniseries.

Actress Glenn Close also claimed victory, picking up an honour for her lead role on dramatic series Damages.

Close paid tribute to actresses in her category: "We're proving that complicated, powerful, mature women are sexy and are high entertainment and can carry a show. I call us the sisterhood of the TV drama divas."

Best Reality-TV Competition program went to Amazing Race, the show's sixth award.

Elsewhere, the spectacular ceremony was marked by a performance from American singer/songwriter Josh Groban, joined briefly on stage by Ed McMahon during a musical salute to television history. Groban took to the stage, singing a medley of songs inspired by TV themes including songs from South Park and Gilligan's Island.

This year's show - opened by talk show queen Oprah Winfrey - was hosted by reality-tv stars American Idol's Ryan Seacrest, Project Runway's Heidi Klum, Dancing with the Stars' Tom Bergeron, Deal or No Deal's Howie Mandel and Survivor's Jeff Probst.

The full list of Emmy Award winners is as follows:

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series: Jeremy Piven - Entourage

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series: Jean Smart - Samantha Who?

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series: Zeljko Ivanek - Damages

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series: Dianne Wiest - In Treatment

Outstanding Directing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program: Louis J. Horvitz - 80th Annual Academy Awards

Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program: The Colbert Report

Commemorative Emmy for Outstanding Writing Achievement in Comedy, Variety: Tommy Smothers - The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie: Laura Linney - John Adams

Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series: The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series: Tim Conway - 30 Rock

Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series: Kathryn Joosten - Desperate Housewives

Outstanding Director in a Comedy Series: Barry Sonnenfeld - Pushing Daises - Pie-Lette

Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series: Tina Fey - 30 Rock

Outstanding Made for Television Movie: Recount

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or Movie: Tom Wilkinson - John Adams

Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Series: Jay Roach - Recount

Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special: Kirk Ellis - John Adams

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie: Eileen Atkins - Cranford (Masterpiece)

Outstanding Reality-tv Competition: The Amazing Race

Outstanding Miniseries: John Adams

Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program: Don Rickles - Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project

Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series: Glynn Turman - In Treatment

Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series: Cynthia Nixon - Law + Order: Special Victims Unit

Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series: Greg Yaitanes - House

Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series: Matthew Weiner - Mad Men - Smoke Gets in Your Eyes (Pilot)

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie: Paul Giamatti - John Adams

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series: Alec Baldwin - 30 Rock

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series: Glenn Close - Damages

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series: Bryan Cranston - Breaking Bad

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series: Tina Fey - 30 Rock

Outstanding Host for a Reality Competition Show: Jeff Probst - Survivor (Jma/Wn/)

Outstanding Comedy Series: 30 Rock

Outstanding Drama Series: Mad Men...

This season continues to be no country for network award shows.

Following the lowest-rated Emmys since 1990, the strike-hindered ratings performance of a severely truncated version of the Golden Globes and a nonstruck airing of the Grammys that nonetheless disappointed, Sunday night's presentation of the 80th Annual Academy Awards on ABC hit an all-time ratings low.

According to overnight fast national ratings, the awards averaged a 10.7 rating among adults 18 to 49 and was seen by 32 million viewers. In the demo, that's down a sharp 24% from last year and the lowest on record. Among viewers, that's a 20% drop. The previous all-time low was in 2003.

Sunday night's Oscar telecast, where No Country for Old Men took the top prize, was expected to underperform given the lack of movies with broad boxoffice appeal vying for best picture. ABC and producers also were unsure whether the Oscars were going forward with a full production until the writers strike was resolved Feb. 12, resulting in a last-minute scramble to prepare and market the show.

With the threat of picketing writers having faded, Sid Ganis, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and producer Gil Cates are now busily burnishing their upcoming Oscar telecast, promising a bright and starry night.

Host Jon Stewart is expected to arrive Saturday in Hollywood, bringing his writing team with him for an intensive week of Oscar prep. The Academy also has engaged veteran Oscar scribes Hal Kanter, Buz Kohan, Jon Macks and Bruce Vilanch.

"We are now full-steam ahead", Ganis said Thursday at a news conference at Academy headquarters in Beverly Hills, where he unveiled a list of presenters on board for the 80th Annual Academy Awards broadcast, set for Feb. 24.

"The writers are writing furiously or furiously writing," he added. Cates said no writing had been done while the strike was in effect. "We are behind, but we will catch up," he said. "Instead of writing eight hours a day, they are writing 12-13 hours a day."

Normally, the Academy rations out the Oscar show's star power, three or four names at a time. But this year, while the strike was taking place, Cates quietly set about booking the show, with the stars' participation contingent on whether a picket line would be in place.

Academy president Sid Ganis vowed that the 80th Annual Academy Awards will take place as scheduled Feb. 24 at the Kodak Theatre, strike or no strike, as he welcomed this year's Oscar hopefuls to the traditional nominees luncheon.

"There's no doubt about it. We're going to do it," he said to an outburst of applause.

Speaking to the 115 nominees who gathered Monday in the Beverly Hilton's International Ballroom, Ganis immediately sought to dispel any fears that the writers strike, whether or not it's resolved by showtime, might derail the Oscars the way it shut down the Golden Globes.

"Of course, we really, really hope that the negotiations between the writers and the producers -- which we now hear are going very, very well -- will have reached a conclusion that everyone is pleased with," Ganis said. "Mainly so that the industry and the workers of the industry are functioning again but also because it will allow our amazing producer Gil Cates to put on the sort of show we all want to see."

"But regardless of those circumstances, which are beyond our control, we will be presenting awards as scheduled on the 24th. We're going to hand out Oscars not because of some showbiz notion that the show must go on -- it's not the show per se that matters. ... The Oscar exists to shine the brightest possible light on you and your work, and it would be such a terrible shame, through no fault of yours and no fault of ours, if the current conditions prevented us from shining that brightest possible light."

As they circulated throughout the room at the democratic event, in which A-list stars mix with sound mixers and short-film makers introduce themselves to feature directors, Academy officials were breathing a definitive sigh of relief, however, at word that an agreement could be in the immediate offing.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has unveiled the poster for the 80th Oscars. If it brings to mind a certain sci-fi movie or six, that's because it was created by veteran poster illustrator Drew Struzan, who made the one-sheets for each of the Star Wars films. His son Christian executed the design of the poster, which will be available for purchase at Oscars.org beginning Wednesday.