Born in
Milan, Italy, at a young age Cotta won a scholarship to attend the
Accademia Nazionale di Arte Drammatica Silvio D'Amico; after just one year she quit the Academy to enter the stage company "La compagnia dei giovani". In 1975, she founded her own company together with her husband,
Carlo Alighiero. Cotta made her film debut in 1951, in
Miracolo a Viggiù. In 2000, she was nominated as Best Supporting Actress at
AFI award and
FCCA Award for her performance in
Kate Woods'
Looking for Alibrandi. In 2013, at 82 years old, she won the
Volpi Cup for Best Actress for her performance in
A Street in Palermo, in which she played an old and stubborn Albanian woman. == Partial filmography ==