Decades after a provocative Oscar acceptance speech, Vanessa Redgrave will be honoured at the film academy's first European tribute to an actor.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences says it will honour the actress on November 13, in London.

She is currently starring with James Earl Jones in the stage production of Driving Miss Daisy in the British capital.

The academy will honour Vanessa for her five decades in film.

The 74-year-old has been nominated for six Academy Awards and won for her supporting role in 1977's Julia, playing an anti-Nazi activist murdered by the Germans. 

The iconic actress' win for the film led to one of the most startling moments in Oscar history.

The Jewish Defence League had objected to her nomination and picketed the ceremony because the star had narrated and helped fund a documentary, The Palestinian, which supported a Palestinian state.

In her acceptance speech, Vanessa praised the academy for not being intimated by "a small bunch of Zionist hoodlums whose behaviour is an insult to the stature of Jews all over the world and their great and heroic record of struggle against fascism and oppression."

Her comments were met by gasps, boos and growing applause.

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