American film director Robert Altman is to be presented with his first Oscar - an honorary award to celebrate a career which has spanned six decades.
Altman, who is now 80, has received five Best Director Oscar nominations, as well as two nominations for producing, but he has never won an Academy Award.
The Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which organises the Oscars, has voted to present the writer and filmmaker with an honorary award at the 78th annual Academy Awards on 5 March.
The Academy said it was giving Altman the Oscar to acknowledge "a career that has repeatedly reinvented the art form and inspired filmmakers and audiences alike."
Academy President Sid Ganis described Altman as "a master filmmaker."
Altman has directed 86 films, produced another 39 and written 37 films including Oscar-nominated classics such as 1970 anti-war drama 'MASH'; 'The Player' (1992); 'Nashville', a 1975 film about the country music business; 'Short Cuts' (1993), based on short stories by Raymond Carver; and 'Gosford Park' (2001).
Among his other films are the 1971 western 'McCabe and Mrs Miller'; crime thriller 'The Long Goodbye' (1973); 'Thieves Like Us' (1974); and the 1994 comedy 'Pret-a-Porter'.
His next film, 'A Prairie Home Companion', is due for release in June.
