LONDON: Stephen Frears, director of films like Dangerous Liaisons, The Hi-Lo Country, and The Queen is to will receive this year‘s European Film Academy Lifetime Achievement Award for his outstanding and dedicated body of work.

"I don‘t know what to say," Frears said on getting the news.

Having already received various awards like the Spanish Goya, the French César and the British Bafta, he said, "Well, they‘re always nice - if you get them," and added: "But I‘m very grateful, it‘s very nice to be complimented by Europe."

The director remembered his long relationship with the European Film Academy: "I was there when it was founded; I came flying back from the Oscars to get there."

"Of course, I‘m never quite sure whether England is part of Europe. We‘re divided about this and have complicated feelings," he said, adding: "But what matters is to keep European film going! And I‘m totally committed to that. Nothing else matters. If the films are good, then people will go and see them."

Frears will be an honorary guest at the 24th European Film Awards Ceremony on 3 December 2011 in Berlin.

Having begun his career in British television, Frears made his breakthrough in 1985 with My Beautiful Launderette. Earning him nominations for the Oscar and Bafta, the film was based on a screenplay by Hanif Kureish with whom he collaborated again in 1987 for Sammy and Rosie Get Laid. Frears then made the Joe Orton biopic Prick Up Your Ears (1987) and Dangerous Liaisons (1988), which won three Oscars, two Bafta and a French César for the director.

Among his other films are The Grifters (1990), Mary Reilly (1996), The Hi-Lo Country (1998), High Fidelity (2000), Dirty Pretty Things (2003), Mrs Henderson Presents (2005), and Tamara Drewe (2010). His film The Queen (2006) was a major international success; it was nominated for virtually every award there is and won the Spanish Goya as well as an Oscar, Golden Globe and European Film Award for Helen Mirren.