"I want to roar": Sigourney Weaver receives Lifetime Achievement Golden Lion award at Venice Film Festival

VENICE: American actor Sigourney Weaver got emotional as she received the Golden Lion Lifetime Achievement Award at the opening ceremony of the 81st Venice Film Festival, which marked a return on Wednesday night.

The legendary star of films such as 'Alien,' 'Avatar' and 'Gorillas in the Mist' was awarded the Golden Lion for lifetime achievement in honour of her work spanning 45 years ahead of the world premiere of "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice'.

In award receiving speech, Weaver said, "I'm sure I'm dreaming. I want to roar,' reported Deadline. The three-time Oscar nominee thanked the festival for what she called a "jet-fuel of encouragement," adding, "I can't believe I'm here."

She also stated that her Golden Lion was "the most astonishing honour I can imagine," jokingly adding that the statue would be "sitting next to me on the plane, it will be next to be in the gondola and my husband will have to get used to having it in bed with us."

During the Weaver tribute, in a surprise video message from her 'Avatar' director James Cameron, wished her "massive congratulations." In the message, he said, "I am blessed to know her as a friend ... our working bond of trust and respect has only gotten stronger with every new project."

He also shared that Weaver received her first Academy Award nomination for their first collaboration, 1986's Aliens, and said she is "way overdue for that Oscar," as reported by Deadline. French actress Camille Cottin, who appeared with Weaver on hit satire series 'Call my Agent', lauded her.

"She's faced everything from aliens to ghosts to gorillas to extra-large soldier pads, to glass ceilings to gender stereotypes," said Cottin. Cottin revealed when she first met Weaver, she was surprised to find her "so soft spoken, so gentle. I was struck that you weren't an oddly powerful woman but just a woman who doesn't give a fuck about the male gaze."

On August 28, Weaver got emotional during the festival press conference when a reporter linked her role as Ripley in 'Alien' to U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. In response, holding up her tears, Weaver said "We're all so excited about Kamala and to think for one moment that my work would have anything to do with her rise makes me very happy, actually, because it's true. I have so many women who come and thank me." She then joked, "Sorry, I need my vodka," as quoted by Variety.