Etoile d'Or for Agnès Varda and Robin Wright

Agnès Varda will receive l'Etoille d'Or Photo: Rosalie Varda

Marrakech Film Festival has announced that it will present Etoile d'Or awards to Agnès Varda and Robin Wright at its 17th edition this December.

Belgian-born director Varda has been making films since 1954, when she established Tamaris, a film-production company for her first feature film La Pointe Courte. She has gone on to make 36 films including her most recent, Faces Places, co-directed by French artist JR.

Robin Wright Photo: Patrick Fraser

The Etoile d'Or marks the most recent in a string of awards for the "grandmother of the French New Wave", including an honorary Oscar, Palme d’Or d’Honneur at Cannes and the Leopard Of Honour award in Locarno.

The 90-year-old said: "I loved Marrakech before the festival existed, but the addition of cinema makes me even more happy to come back and meet the community of Moroccan and worldwide filmmakers and film buffs."

American star Wright, 52, has also enjoyed a lengthy career on the big and small screens, stretching back to ranch-set TV drama The Yellow Rose in the Eighties. She has recently returned to television as Claire Underwood in Netflix drama House Of Cards, for which she is also an executive producer and has also directed several episodes.

She said: “I’m honored to be receiving the l'Etoile d'Or award at this year’s Marrakech Film Festival. I’m thrilled to be visiting the country of Morocco and grateful to be given this opportunity to experience the Moroccan culture and enjoy such a beautiful location.”

The festival, which runs from November 30 to December 8, has previously announced that Robert De Niro will also attend an homage to his work at the festival. We Own The Night director James Gray will be jury president.