Hit musical Moulin Rouge has received a boost for its Oscar hopes with the award of a prize from the Producers Guild of America.

The Baz Luhrmann-directed film, which starred Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor, was named the best film of the year.

In the last 12 years nine movies honoured by the Producers' Guild have gone on to win best picture at the Academy Awards - including Gladiator in 2001 and American Beauty in 2000.

The PGA predicted Gladiator's Oscar success

The boost for the musical may have come at a good time, as Baz Luhrmann was not nominated for an Academy Award for direction.

Many observers have started to see the Oscars as a race between top-nominated The Lord of the Rings and A Beautiful Mind - which received eight nominations, as did Moulin Rouge.

Oscar share

But the antics of A Beautiful Mind's star Russell Crowe after the UK's Baftas - when he berated a TV producer for editing out a poem he read out on accepting an award - may have damaged his Oscar prospects.

If Moulin Rouge is named best picture at the Oscars on 24 March, Luhrmann will still take a share in an Oscar as one of the movies' three producers, despite the lack of a director's nomination.

The film's other producers were Fred Baron and Martin Brown.

Kidman was the only Moulin Rouge actor to receive an Oscar nomination, following her January Golden Globe for her lead role in the film.

Other winners announced by the Producer's Guild at Sunday's Los Angeles ceremony were The West Wing for TV drama, Sex And The City for TV comedy and Band Of Brothers for TV mini-series.