Fargo wins Emmy for best miniseries, Normal Heart for best TV movie

Executive producer Ryan Murphy (right) accepting the award for Outstanding Television Movie for The Normal Heart, with playwright Larry Kramer (left) onstage during the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
Executive producer Ryan Murphy (right) accepting the award for Outstanding Television Movie for The Normal Heart, with playwright Larry Kramer (left) onstage during the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
Executive producer Noah Hawley accepting the Outstanding Miniseries Award for Fargo, the TV re-imagining of the Coen brothers' cult film, at the Primetime Emmy Awards on Monday. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

LOS ANGELES (REUTERS) - Fargo, the TV re-imagining of the Coen brothers' cult film, won best miniseries at the Primetime Emmy Awards on Monday, while HBO's The Normal Heart earned best TV movie honours for its depiction of the early fight against AIDS.

Fargo gave FX Networks its first Emmy for a programme, but actors from the critically acclaimed miniseries lost out on awards despite being heavy favourites, especially lead actor Billy Bob Thornton. "Who else can I thank but Joel and Ethan Coen, who don't watch the Emmys," said Fargo creator Noah Hawley of the directors of the 1996 Oscar-winning film who granted him creative freedom to recreate the snowy psychological thriller.

The Normal Heart was based on the play by Larry Kramer, who wrote about his own fight against the spread of AIDS as a gay activist in New York City. "This is for all of the hundreds of thousands of artists who have passed from HIV/AIDS since 1981. Your memory and your passion burns on in us," said Ryan Murphy, director of The Normal Heart.

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