Angelina Jolie is to receive the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, BBC News reports.

The honorary Oscar is one of several statuettes handed out by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences at the Governors Awards in November.

Veteran actress Angela Lansbury, Steve Martin and costume designer Piero Tosi will also be honored.

The awards "pay tribute to individuals who've made indelible contributions in their respective fields," said Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs.

The honorary awards are given out every year in recognition of "extraordinary distinction in lifetime achievement, exceptional contributions to the state of motion picture arts and sciences, or for outstanding service to the Academy".

Boone, who phoned all four recipients individually to inform them of the forthcoming honour, called Martin, 68, "a real Renaissance Man" and deemed 87-year-old Lansbury "one of the finest actresses in our industry".

Lansbury received three Oscar nominations over the course of her career, for her work in Gaslight, The Picture of Dorian Gray and 1962's The Manchurian Candidate, but never won the award. She also has five Tonys to her name and became a household name in the long-running TV series Murder, She Wrote?.

Writer, actor and comedian Martin remains best known for his early hits such as 1979's The Jerk and Planes, Trains & Automobiles. He has never been nominated for an Oscar, though he has hosted the award ceremony on three occasions.

Tosi becomes the first costume designer to receive an honorary Oscar. The 86-year-old Italian has been Oscar-nominated five times, and remains best known in his field for his work on Luchino Visconti's films The Leopard, Death in Venice and Ludwig.

Jolie, the youngest of the four recipients, won an Oscar in 2000 for her career-defining turn in Girl, Interrupted, and was subsequently nominated in 2009, for The Changeling.

A long-serving goodwill ambassador for the United Nations, she became a special envoy for the organization in 2012.

The role has taken her to refugee camps in more than 30 countries, including Sierra Leone, Darfur, Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya.