Pamela Anderson is set to receive the Zurich Film Festival Golden Eye Award.

The 57-year-old actress and former Playboy cover star is being honoured for her role as Las Vegas showgirl Shelley in the Gia Coppola film 'The Last Show Girl' - with the Swiss film festival's artistic director Christian Jungen calling for Pamela to receive an Oscar nomination for the portrayal.

He said: “Pamela poured her heart and soul into the character of Shelley and captivated us right from the start.

“She completely immersed herself in her character, turned Shelley’s inner life inside out with her facial expressions and made sure that we sympathised with her. A terrific performance, perhaps the best of her career, which deserves an Oscar nomination. We are therefore delighted to honour Pamela Anderson, this cult actress with whom many of us have grown up and who has reinvented herself time and again, at the ZFF.”

Pamela and Gia, 37, will be in attendance at a gala screening of the flick at the festival on October 4, where she will accept the prize in-person.

Pamela relished the opportunity to star in the movie at this stage of her career.

The former 'Baywatch' star - who has released a documentary and a best-selling memoir in recent years - recently told Collider: "I think timing is everything. I thought I was never gonna get the chance to do anything like this.

"I kind of thought, 'Oh, well, that's what people think of me. I'm just gonna go back to my farm, make jam, and that's it. I'll figure out another way to make my life beautiful.'

"But the documentary came out, the book came out, and Gia saw the documentary. She must be some kind of master or prophet or something, but she was so wonderful to send the script to me, and I read it and I was like, 'Oh god, this is that thing. This is that thing when people read a script and they really realise they're the only ones that can do it. They have to do it. It's life and death.' And I felt that way, and I get chills even thinking about it."

Pamela - who stars in the movie alongside the likes of Jamie Lee Curtis, Dave Bautista, Brenda Song, and Billie Lourd - insisted: "I knew I had to do it. And so I'm just so grateful."