The annual prize, given to noted filmmaker Alan Parker last year, is the highest honour that the Academy can bestow, reported BBC online.
Mirren, 68, who won a best actress Oscar in 2007 for 'The Queen', said the honour was "overwhelming".
"This is the greatest professional honour I can imagine, certainly one I never dreamt of as a schoolgirl in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex. To join that list of legendary names is overwhelming," she said.
Previous winners of the prize have included Charlie Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg and Stanley Kubrick.
An accomplished film, television and stage actress, Mirren's breakthrough film role came in John Mackenzie's British gangster flick 'The Long Good Friday'.