Loren, who won best actress Oscar in 1961 for Two Women and an Oscar for career achievement in 1991, was guest of honor at the festival which ends on April 17. The festival's other celebrity guests are director Jane Campion, who will head the jury and Charles Dance who attended the opening ceremony to present his film Ladies in Lavender - the actor's first attempt at directing. "Ever since her gazelle-like eyes appeared on screen, she has enchanted anyone gazing at them," presenter Ceyda Duvenci said of the Italian star.

"I feel surrounded by love," Loren in a black, long-sleeved gown, responded, adding she would place the award next to the Oscars.

Nedim Otyam who composed music for more than 100 Turkish films, acclaimed director Yavuz Turgul and actor Tarik Akan, a 70's film heartthrob, who later turned to films with political tinge also received "honour" awards for their contribution to Turkish cinema. The festival formally kicked off with the screening of Ladies in Lavender, in which Dame Judy Dench and Dame Maggie Smith portray two spinsters in a post-World Ward II British fishing village who take in a mysterious young Polish man they find half-drowned on a beach.

"It is my first film as a director and I hope it is not my last," Dance said.

Thirteen international films with themes on arts or artists or which are literary adaptations are competing for the festival's Golden Tulip Award.

They include Beyond the Sea in which Kevin Spacey directed himself as 1950s crooner Bobby Darin, Untold Scandal - a Korean version of the novel Les Liasons Dangereuses and Turkish film Yolda, inspired by a journey director Erden Kiral made with his mentor, Yilmaz Guney, when the late film director was being transferred from one prison to another during military rule. Nine Turkish films will be competing for an award in the national film category.