Producers Guild to Honor Sean Penn with the 2011 Stanley Kramer Award

Sean Penn in a scene from Doug Liman's "Fair Game."

Sean Penn will be honored at the 22nd Annual Producers Guild Awards with the Stanley Kramer Award. Established in 2002, the award recognizes "a motion picture, producer or other individual, whose achievement or contribution illuminates provocative social issues in an accessible and elevating fashion." He is the first actor to receive the award.

Past winners include the feature films "The Great Debaters," "An Inconvenient Truth," "Hotel Rwanda," Innocent Voices," "In America," "Antwone Fisher," and last year's recipient, "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire."

Penn will accept the prize at the Beverly Hills Hotel January 22.

"We are proud to honor Sean Penn with this award as he truly exemplifies the Stanley Kramer legacy," 2011 Producers Guild Awards chair Paula Wagner said in a statement. "Sean is a committed activist who has used his extraordinary talents and influence to shed light on powerful stories, causes and individuals — through film, journalism, and global humanitarian organizations."