Italian actress Claudia Cardinale was honoured at the 37th Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF) during its opening ceremony.
The "Girl With a Suitcase" actress, who arrived in Cairo to attend the fest, said she feels safe in Egypt.
"We have to fight to have all people come in holidays here, because it's a fantastic country. I love Egypt," Cardinale said.
The world acclaimed actress, 77, arrived here on November 10 to be a part of the festival, which started last evening and will continues till November 20.
Claudia said her luck played an important role in starting her career as a cinema actress. She began her career by participating in a beauty pageant organised by the Italian Consulate in Tunis in 1957.
"I was sitting with some girls when one of the organisers took me on stage and named me the most beautiful woman in Tunisia. It was by chance," she said.
She was only 17 and the prize was a trip to attend Venice Film Festival.
"I travelled with my mother and I was wearing a Tunisian costume and all people wanted to take photos of me.
"When asked by some producers there to do cinema, I said no. And on the plane that was taking me back to Tunis, I found my photo in newspapers with headlines saying 'The girl who refused to do cinema'," said the actress, who acted in more than 150 movies since then.
Claudia was born in Sidi Bou Said area in Tunis from a French mother and an Italian father from Sicilia. She became famous in the sixties and gained international fame, being often compared to Sofia Loren.
When asked about her evergreen look, she said, "I'm 77 years old and I'm still working. I didn't do lifting or plastic operations."
Claudia appeared in some of the most acclaimed European films of the 1960s and 1970s, mainly Italian or French, but also in several English films.
Two of Claudia's films will be screened during the Festival -- "Goha" (1958), the first movie in which she starred, alongside Egyptian Legendary actor Omar Sharif; and "The Leopard", in which she played alongside Burt Lancaster and Alain Delon.
Claudia said that moviemakers in Egypt should work on co-production projects in order to have their works screened worldwide and the west know their movies.
The actress also said that this is an extremely difficult time for Italian cinema as well because only few films are screened abroad compared to the past.
