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British director Nicolas Roeg is to be awarded with the London Film Critics' Circle's highest honour for his contribution to film-making.

The Don't Look Now director will receive the Dilys Powell Award for Excellence at a London ceremony on 19 January.

"This award has truly amazed me and certainly caught me a bit left-footed," the director said.

The Critics' Circle praised Roeg as a "lasting testament to innovation".

The veteran film-maker won critical acclaim for his first film Performance, which he co-directed with Donald Cammell in 1970 and went on to make cult classics Walkabout and The Man Who Fell to Earth.

He also directed a big screen adaptation of Roald Dahl's The Witches in 1990 starring Angelica Huston.

"I'm sure the critics will understand when I say - on looking through and reading some of my old reviews, I'm torn between thanking you and forgiving you," the director said.

"But having slept on it, I'll go with the positive and thank you all and hope that in the countdown for the decision of the Critics' Circle to give me a tribute, some old mathematical rule applied where two negatives can sometimes make a positive."

Chairman of The Critics' Circle Film Section, Jason Solomons, added: "Nic Roeg's films stand out as one of the most distinctive and influential bodies of work of any British film maker.

"I am thrilled that he can now join the list of illustrious honourees of the Dilys Powell Award for Excellence in Cinema.

"He adds mischief, daring and brilliance to it, as well as the sort of maverick artistic spirit that only cinema can liberate."

Other previous recipients of the honour include Quentin Tarantino, Dirk Bogarde, Richard Attenborough, Julie Walters, Judi Dench and Kristin Scott Thomas.