The legendary filmmaker Woody Allen is set to have his achievements and influence recognized as the organisers of the Golden Globe Awards have announced that the director will receive the 2014 Cecil B DeMille Award. Come the 71st annual Golden Globe ceremony on January 12, a special tribute to the 77-year-old will be paid.

Blue Jasmine(Left to right) Cate Blanchett, Max Casella Bobby Cannavale and Sally Hughes star in Blue Jasmine

"There is no one more worthy," said awards organiser Theo Kingma. Allen might be looking at an awards-laden winter. His 49th movie, Blue Jasmine, starring Cate Blanchett, is an outsider for a Best Picture award, while the Best Director category is still wide open. Allen, though, is more likely to receive a Best Screenplay for his drama, which also stars Alec Baldwin.

With a career spanning five decades, Allen’s name has become synonymous with legendary cinema. He wrote scripts for The Tonight Show and columns for the New Yorker before making his break on Broadway Cold War farce Don't Drink The Water in 1966.

Having written the script for ‘What's New Pussycat?’ and seeing the mess that was made of it, Allen decided that if a job was worth doing, it was worth doing right, so made the move from writer to director. Annie Hall and Manhattan – two New York-based comedies – heralded the start of a wonderful and illustrious career.

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He has won four Oscars, while being nominated a total of 23 times. And while the auteur has no specific designs on stepping back in front of the camera, it’s not beyond the realms of possibilities.

"If, tomorrow, there's a great part for me, I'll write it and do it in a minute,” he told The Guardian. “It makes life easier if I'm the star of the picture. It means I don't have to direct anybody. It cuts down on the conversations. It's not twice as difficult to direct yourself. It's half as difficult”

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