Francis Ford Coppola is to receive a prestigious and rarely awarded prize at next year’s Academy Awards.

The five-time Oscar winning director is being honoured for his lifetime contribution to cinema, which has included a spectacular four awards for the Godfather series as well as eight nominations including three for cult Vietnam flick Apocalypse Now. He will receive the Irving G Thalberg Memorial Award for the “consistently high” standard of his work.

Coppola is much less prolific than once he was, with only two of his 22 directorial credits dating from the last twelve years. Nevertheless, his daughter Sofia has taken up the mantle of polished Coppola direction, earning an Oscar nomination for 2004’s Lost in Translation – the first American woman ever to be so nominated. At 71, does FFC have another award-winning film in him, or will 2009’s Tetro be his last effort? Watch this space…