Veteran actor Shabana Azmi will be honored with the Excellence in Cinema Award at the 2024 MAMI Mumbai Film Festival, recognizing her exceptional career spanning 50 years, the organizers announced on Friday.

The Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI), which organizes the film gala every year, will present the award to Shabana on October 18, a press release said.

It will be followed by a masterclass on October 19 with National Award-winning actor Vidya Balan, offering insight into Shabana’s journey and experiences over five decades in the industry, a press release issued here said.

Known for her remarkable contributions to both parallel and mainstream cinema, Shabana started her career with Shyam Benegal's 1974 film Ankur, followed by critically-acclaimed movies such as Arth (1982), Swami (1977), Sparsh (1980), Mandi (1983), Masoom (1983), Ek Din Achanak (1989), Godmother (1999), Earth (1998) and Fire (1996).