Gena Rowlands will be honoured next year with the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Career Achievement Award.

Best known for her work with her late husband, director and actor John Cassavetes, the 84-year-old Rowlands will be feted at the association’s award dinner on January 15 at the InterContinental Hotel in Century City.

“In her collaborations with her late husband, John Cassavetes, and in many other memorable performances for film and televison over the last 55 years, Gena Rowlands gave us women who lived every moment with a fierce, sometimes terrifying individuality,” association President Stephen Farber said in a statement.

He added, “In doing so, Rowlands revolultionised the art of screen acting, particularly for the female actors who followed in her footsteps.”

Rowlands was nominated for an Academy Award for her leading roles in Cassavetes’ A Woman Under the Influence and Gloria. Other credits include Faces, Another Woman, Tempest and The Notebook.

She is a three-time Emmy winner: two for lead actress in a movie or miniseries for The Betty Ford Story (1987) and Face of A Stranger (1992), and one for supporting actress in a movie or mini-series for Hysterical Blindness (2003).

The critics group will also present critic and former President Leonard Maltin with a special citiation for “more than four decades of tireless, unparalleled service to lovers of cinema the world over.”

Voting for the LA critics’ awards for the year’s films and performances takes place on December 7.