Laszlo Kovacs will receive this year's Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society Of Cinematographers (ASC) at the 16th annual ASC Outstanding Achievement Awards on Feb 17, 2002, in Los Angeles.

Kovacs, who was raised in communist Hungary, came to the US in 1957 as a political refugee. He made his breakthrough as the cinematographer on Easy Rider (1969), going on to work on classic films such as Five Easy Pieces (1970), What's Up Doc' (1972), The King Of Marvin Gardens (1972), Paper Moon (1973), Shampoo (1975), New York, New York (1977) and Ghostbusters (1984) as well as recent hits My Best Friend's Wedding (1997) and Miss Congeniality (2000).

He joins 15 other cinematographers who have won the prize: George Folsey, Philip Lathrop, Stanley Cortez, Charles Lang Jr, Joe Biroc, Haskell Wexler, Conrad Hall, Gordon Willis, Sven Nykvist, Owen Roizman, Victor J Kemper, Vilmos Zsigmond, William A Fraker and Vittorio Storaro.