The Palm Springs International Film Festival will present its Director's Lifetime Achievement Award to Oscar-winner Ron Howard on Jan. 6 to launch its 20th annual festival, it was announced Thursday.

The award will specially recognize Howard's new film, “Frost/Nixon,” and acknowledge his 50th anniversary in entertainment. He made his acting debut in Anatole Litvak's “The Journey” in 1959.

Festival chairman Harold Matzner called “Frost /Nixon” “yet another powerful film from one of the industry's true icons.”

Executive director Darryl Macdonald said the film again showcases Howard's ability to draw great performances from his actors.

“Frank Langella will no doubt get a nomination, likely Michael Sheen will get one, too,” said Macdonald. “They're both terrific in it.

“He's a director who has evoked seven Oscar-nominated performances out of his actors in the past. It's probably his own history as an actor that gives him great empathy in working with actors.”

“Frost/Nixon” premiered Oct. 15 to open the London Film Festival. Based on Peter Morgan's play, the film dramatizes the battle between disgraced President Richard Nixon (Langella), seeking to save his legacy, and TV journalist David Frost (Sheen), pursuing the interview of a lifetime.

It will be released in select theaters on Dec. 5 and expand nationwide on Christmas Day.

Howard has created memorable films ranging from the dramas “A Beautiful Mind” and “Apollo 13” to the comedies “Parenthood” and “Splash.” He earned a Best Director Oscar for “A Beautiful Mind.”

He's now in post-production adapting Dan Brown's best-selling novel, “Angels & Demons,” due out May 15.

Howard co-starred as Opie on “The Andy Griffith Show,” which ran from 1960 to 1968, and starred in the series “Happy Days” and the films “American Graffiti” and “The Shootist.”

He and producing partner Brian Grazer first collaborated on the comedies “Night Shift” and “Splash.” They co-founded Imagine Entertainment in 1986 and have since produced such films as “Changeling,” “American Gangster,” “Inside Man,” “Friday Night Lights,” “8 Mile,” and “Bowfinger.”

Howard joins such past director honorees as Stanley Donen, Milos Forman, Ridley Scott and Franco Zeffirelli.

The awards gala, presented by Cartier, will be hosted by “Entertainment Tonight's” Mary Hart at the Palm Springs Convention Center.

The festival, running Jan. 6-19, 2009, will include more than 450 screenings of more than 220 films from approximately 65 countries.

Information: 322-2930, (800) 898-7256 or www.psfilmfest.org.