Earlier this week we put the Italian film industry under the spotlight and now it's time for us to take a closer look at some of the stars that have made the movies so memorable.
Sophia Loren has enjoyed a career that has spanned over fifty years and, in that time, has become one of the most popular Italian actress.
Loren kicked off her career in 1950 with movies such as I am the Capataz, Barbablu's six wives and White Leprosy, as well as some films in her native Italian, but it was her performance in Boy on a Dolphin and The Pride and the Passion in 1957 that really saw her arrive in Hollywood.
She signed a five picture deal with Paramount Pictures and her star really was on the rise and she went on to appear in Desire Under the Elms and Houseboat, which reunited her with Cary Grant.
In 1961 Loren scooped the Best Actress Oscar for her role in Two Women directed by Vittorio De Sica, she became the first actress to win an Oscar for a performance in a foreign language and her career exploded.
Over the next few year she starred in El Cid, The Millionairess, It Started in Naples and Arabesque starring alongside the likes of Charlton Heston, Peter Sellers, Clark Gable and Paul Newman.
However Loren was not the first Italian actress to get her hands on an a Best Actress Oscar that honour belongs to Anna Magani.
She worked in movies for almost two decade before she made a name for herself in Roma, Citta Aperta in 1945. She began to establish herself in Italian cinema with performances in Ossessione, L'Amore and Bellissima.
But it was her role in The Rose Tattoo that put her on the international stage as she scooped the Best Actress Oscar for her performance.
Starring alongside Burt Lancaster the film followed a woman who becomes withdrawn from the world after the death of her husband. Just two years later she was nominated again for Wild is the Wind.
Peppino De Filippo was still a child when he made film debut before going on to the Compagnia Teatro Umoristico: i De Filippo which toured in theatres all over Italy.
Although he had great versatility as an actor it was the comedies of the sixties that he was best known for and his collaboration with Toto made him a star.
Francesca Bertini was one of the stars of the silent era of cinema and one of the most successful actresses of the time.
Histoire d'un pierrot was her breakthrough movie in 1913 and her popularity rocketed by 1915 she was being paid a reported $175, 000, which was a record at the time.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
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