Veteran actress Sigourney Weaver, best known for her role in Ridley Scott’s 1979 sci-fi film Alien, is set to receive the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at this year’s Venice Film Festival, according to a statement from the organisers on Friday.

“An actress of the calibre of Sigourney Weaver has few rivals,” said the festival’s artistic director, Alberto Barbera, in a statement.

“The Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement is just recognition for a star who has built bridges between the most sophisticated art-house cinema and movies that engage with the public in a frank and original way, all the while remaining true to herself,” Barbera also said.

“Endowed with a remarkable temperament, able to move with delicacy yet without fragility, she has created the image of a woman who is self-assured and determined, dynamic and resolute; at the same time, with endlessly different shadings, she allows her intensely magnetic, feminine sensitivity to filter through,” Barbera further said.

In her reaction to the news, Weaver expressed her gratitude, saying she was truly honoured to receive the award from La Biennale di Venezia. “To be gifted this award is a privilege I share with all the filmmakers and collaborators I have worked with throughout the years. I proudly accept this award in celebration of all who have helped bring these films to life,” she said.

The US actor, a recipient of two Golden Globe Awards and a Grammy Award, gained fame as Ellen Ripley in Alien. She reprised her role in James Cameron's 1986 Aliens, which earned her first Academy Award nomination, and continued to appear in two more films in the franchise as well as in the blockbuster Avatar and Ghostbusters films.

The 81st Venice International Film Festival is slated to take place from August 28 till September 7.