Sophia Loren began her stellar career at the age of 14 after entering a beauty contest in Rome, where a special photographic exhibition will open to mark her 80th birthday.
Mexico will also host an exhibition of her costumes, video clips, photographs of the sultry star and what she regards as her most treasured possession, the Oscar she won in 1962 for her role in Two Women, based on Alberto Moravia’s celebrated novel. She become the first actor to win the award in a foreign-language film.
Sophia was originally cast as the daughter in the film, but insisted that she get to play the hard-pressed mother. She was one of the world's most popular actresses, certainly in the 1960s and 1970s.
She won her second Oscar in 1991, the Cecil B DeMille award for her outstanding contribution to films.
Watch a dubbed-into-English extract from Two Women
