Berlin - Next year's Berlin Film Festival is to honour the renowned French film composer Maurice Jarre, the organizers announced Tuesday.

This includes awarding Jarre an honorary festival Golden Bear for his lifetime achievement with the festival also dedicating its Homage section to the films he worked on.

"Film composers often are in the shadows of great directors and acting stars. It's different with Maurice Jarre; the music of Doctor Zhivago, like much of his work, is world-famous and remains unforgotten in the history of cinema," said Berlinale festival director Dieter Kosslick.

Over the course of his career, Jarre worked on more than 150 international film productions, including movies from such leading directors as John Frankenheimer, Alfred Hitchcock, John Huston, Luchino Visconti and Peter Weir.

Born in Lyon, Jarre's international breakthrough came in 1962 when he worked on David Lean's epic Lawrence of Arabia, which the composer won his first Oscar for. (dpa)