Academy Award-winning director Martin Scorsese will deliver the 2013 Jefferson Lecture, the National Endowment for the Humanities announced Tuesday. Scorsese is the first filmmaker chosen for the honor, which is typically awarded to a scholar in the humanities (and is the highest accolade the federal government bestows for such work). NEH Chairman Jim Leach said that Scorsese "follows in the tradition of earlier speakers like John Updike, Barbara Tuchman, and Arthur Miller in revealing a profound understanding and empathy for the human condition.”

This year's lecture will be held on Monday, April 1, at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.