Tarantino to get French movie award

The cult US director Quentin Tarantino will be presented with a special prize for his body of work next month at the Cesar Awards, the French equivalent of the Oscars.

The awards ceremony president, Alain Terzian, said Friday that Tarantino, whose movies include "Pulp Fiction" and "Reservoir Dogs", will be given the gong as a mark of respect for "a great international artist."

US actress Jodie Foster will preside over the 36th edition of the annual awards in Paris on February 25.

Oscar-winning director Roman Polanski, who last year escaped extradition to the United States on child sex charges, is vying for a prize for his political thriller "The Ghost Writer".

Xavier Beauvois's "Of Gods and Men", a drama about Catholic monks caught up in Algeria's Islamist violence, is also in the running.

Gerard Depardieu, Catherine Deneuve, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Kristin Scott-Thomas are among the actors hoping to pick up a Cesar prize.