MUMBAI: Academy Award-winning actress Reese Witherspoon will be honored with the MTV Generation Award during the 2011 MTV Movie Awards, for her exceptional contributions to the film industry and for charming generations of the MTV audience throughout her career.

Witherspoon is considered one of Hollywood’s most talented, diverse and bankable actresses, who consistently holds film critics and moviegoers spellbound with her varied and engrossing performances. The MTV Generation Award is the MTV Movie Awards highest honor, acknowledging an actor who can be counted on to engage the MTV audience with everything she does. Past recipients include Sandra Bullock, Ben Stiller, Adam Sandler, Mike Myers, Tom Cruise and Jim Carrey.

"Reese Witherspoon is one of the most versatile and accomplished performers of her time. Our viewers admire her for taking risks and for the breathtaking range of her roles. She fearlessly moves between dramas and comedies and always leaves everyone guessing what she’ll do next. We are thrilled to honor Reese with this year’s MTV Generation Award," said MTV president Stephen Friedman.