Directors Guild to Honor Scorsese

The Directors Guild of America will honor director Martin Scorsese with a lifetime achievement award during its 55th annual awards ceremony March 1, officials said.

The director of Gangs of New York will become the 30th recipient of the award, which is the organization's highest tribute.

Scorsese, 60, has a directing career spanning more than four decades and his work includes: Taxi Driver, The Age of Innocence, Raging Bull, Casino and GoodFellas. On Sunday, he won a best director Golden Globe.

He is being honored for nurturing young filmmakers and his fight to preserve the legacy of motion picture art for future generations, said guild president Martha Coolidge.

"There are few who have impacted our industry in the numerous ways that Marty has," Coolidge said. "Marty's footprints are beside those of our past recipients."

The most recent recipient of the Guild's lifetime achievement award was director Steven Spielberg in 2000. Other winners include: Francis Ford Coppola, Stanley Kubrick, Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, Frank Capra and John Ford.

Honorees are selected by present and past Guild presidents.