David Lynch set to receive an honorary Oscar this weekend

Film director David Lynch will be one of a trio of Hollywood veterans to be awarded an honorary Oscar at this weekend’s Governors Awards, while Geena Davis will be rewarded for her humanitarian work.

The man behind Eraserhead and Blue Velvet, as well as the TV series Twin Peaks, will receive the gong in recognition of his career from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Lynch’s 2001 film Mulholland Drive, starring Naomi Watts, was ranked as the best movie of the 21st century in a 2016 poll carried out by the BBC.

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Lina Wertmüller — the first woman nominated for a directing Oscar — will also be honoured at the ceremony, alongside Cherokee actor Wes Studi, who will become the first Native American actor to win an Academy Award.

Wertmüller was nominated by the Academy for her work on Seven Beauties in 1977 and also directed acclaimed drama The Seduction of Mimi.

Studi is best known for his performances in Dances with Wolves and The Last of the Mohicans and was recently seen in the 2017 Western Hostiles, alongside Christian Bale.

Thelma and Louise actor Geena Davis will receive the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in recognition of her work as a spirited advocate for gender equality through the Geena Davis Institute on Gender and Media.

Davis remains most famous for her lead role alongside Susan Sarandon in the 1991 Ridley Scott road movie, but also played the female lead alongside Jeff Goldblum in gruesome body horror film The Fly.

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First awarded in 1928, the Academy Honorary Award has been given to icons including Charlie Chaplin, Walt Disney and Kirk Douglas.

It is designed to reward achievement outside of the traditional Oscar categories, though those who have won competitive Oscars remain eligible to win an honorary gong.

Last year’s honorary Oscar winners were publicist Marvin Levy, film score composer Lalo Schifrin and How to Get Away With Murder actor Cicely Tyson.