George Stevens Jr., the man behind the Kennedy Center Honors. Photograph by Carol Ross Joynt.

Washington’s own George Stevens Jr., the founding director of the American Film Institute and producer of The Kennedy Center Honors, has been named to receive an honorary Oscar. The announcement was made late Wednesday in Los Angeles by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, who also plan to honor stuntman Hal Needham, documentary filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker, and DreamWorks executive Jeffrey Katzenberg.

The awards will be presented in a special program in Los Angeles in December. The main Oscars telecast will be in February.

Coincidentally, Stevens is not the first in his family to get an Oscar. His father, director George Stevens, won Best Director Oscars for A Place In the Sun and Giant.

Last year, before the 34th annual Kennedy Center Honors, we talked to Stevens about producing Washington’s most glamorous cultural event, which this year happens on December 2.