French actress Anouk Aimee

The Cannes Film Festival will pay tribute to Anouk Aimee, doyenne of French cinema, on May 27, organizers said Tuesday.

Described by festival director Gilles Jacob as "one of the cinema's most beautiful embodiments of femininity," Aimee found success at age 16 in Cayette's "The Lovers of Verona." She also starred in Federico Fellini's "La Dolce Vita" and "8 1/2" as well as in "Lola" by Jacques Demy.

Aimee shot to stardom in 1966 in Claude Lelouch's "Un Homme et Une Femme" (A Man and a Woman), for which she received an Oscar nomination.

Aimee has worked with directors including Robert Altman, George Cukor and Sidney Lumet. She won the prize for best actress at Cannes in 1980 for "A Leap in the Dark."