Angelina Jolie is being recognized for her philanthropic work and will receive an award from the board of the Governors of the Academy of the Motion Picture Arts and Sciences at this year's untelevised event.

Jolie, Angela Lansbury, Steve Martin and Italian costume designer Piero Tosi will all receive a specific Oscar honor at the 2013 Governors Awards. Brad Pitt's fiancee will be given the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award on Saturday.

"Paul Newman has been a hero of mine since I was a little girl," Jolie told The Associated Press via email. "Receiving the Hersholt award makes me feel like I am on the right path but also reminds me I have more to do."

The 38-year-old, who has built a successful film career, has also lent her time to over 40 United Nations Refugee Agency field missions. She's also founded many charitable organizations on her own, including the Maddox Jolie-Pitt Foundation, which supports Cambodia. She's also the co-founder of the Prevent Sexual Violence Initiative.

"It is an honor and a pleasure to work on behalf of refugee children and victims of rape," she said. "No matter how much I have to do, how busy my life is, I am always aware that the challenges are absolutely nothing in comparison to what they face on a daily basis."

The mother of six wrote her email to AP from Australia where she is currently directing her latest film, Unbroken.

The film is based on The New York Times best-selling novel by Laura Hillenbrand titled Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption. The book tells the story of an Olympian and war hero named Lou Zamperini.

As a part of the U.S. team, Zamperini raced in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. In 1943, during World War II, he and two other crewmen survived a plane crash in the Pacific without food and water for 47 days. After washing ashore on enemy lines on a Japanese island, they were taken and sent to a prison camp. As a prisoner, Zamperini was tortured.

The film will come to U.S. theaters in 2014.

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