Dutch TV series All Stars was the surprise winner in the drama category at this year's International Emmys in New York on Monday night (Nov 20), beating hotly tipped UK mini-series Warriors, which has already clinched several major awards so far this year.

All Stars, a spin-off of Jean van de Velde's hit Dutch feature about a group of amateur soccer players, is produced by the Netherlands' NOS/VARA Broadcasting. It beat both Warriors - a BBC TV production which took top prizes at this year's Monte Carlo Television Festival, Italy's Prix Italia and the UK's RTS awards - and France's The Favourite Daughter, produced by Capa Drama and broadcaster M6.

UK productions have scooped the drama category of the International Emmys 16 times in the last 20 years. The exceptions have been Swedish drama The Tattooed Window, which won in 1998; France's La Colline Aux Mille Enfants, which won in 1996; Germany's Das Boot, which brought director Wolfgang Petersen to international attention and won in 1985; and A Town Like Alice, which won for Australia in 1981.

However, the BBC triumphed in the performing arts category this year with Gloriana, A Film, from London-based theatre and opera director Phyllida Lloyd. UK productions also won in the popular arts category, which went to an episode of Channel 4 comedy series Smack The Pony; the children's category, awarded to three episodes of Kudos Productions' The Magician's House; and the news category, which went to ITN's coverage of the flood in Mozambique.

The other winners were Israel's Kapo, which took the best documentary prize, and France's The Jazzman From The Gulag, which won best arts documentary,

International Emmys are presented by the International Council of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS).