Cate Blanchett will be presented with a British Film Institute Fellowship, the BFI’s highest honor, at the London Film Festival’s annual awards ceremony on October 17.
One of the actress’s two highly anticipated films, “Truth,” about “60 Minutes” producer Mary Mapes and the risks she took with anchor Dan Rather to expose a story about President George W. Bush, has also been scheduled for a Fellowship Special Presentation on the same night as the ceremony.
The recognition is the latest in a banner year for Blanchett, who will be saluted by MoMA this fall. The longtime co-artistic director of Sydney Theatre Company also recently announced her TV directorial debut.
BFI Chairman Greg Dyke commented, “Cate Blanchett is a compelling and brave actress whose mesmerising screen presence has captivated audiences since her earliest roles. We are absolutely delighted to honour her extraordinary talents with a BFI Fellowship at this year’s LFF awards.”
Here’s what the BFI has to say about Blanchett in its press release:
The BFI Fellowship is awarded to individuals in recognition of their outstanding contribution to film or television and Cate Blanchett’s mesmerising screen presence has captivated audiences since her earliest roles.
A fearless and subtle actress, she has the rare gift of seeming utterly to inhabit the characters she plays and has an amazing ability to convey complex layers of emotion to stunning effect. The diversity of her talent shines through in “Truth” where she gives another virtuosic performance as the fiercely bright Mary Mapes, a woman whose professional commitment to exposing “the truth” is so great that she is prepared to risk her career and personal safety.
Blanchett is magnificent in Todd Haynes’ “Carol” as an alluring woman trapped in a loveless marriage who falls for a young woman (Rooney Mara) working as a department store cleark in 50s Manhattan. Her performance in “Carol,” which has already been announced as the American Express Gala screening in this year’s LFF on Wednesday 14 October, is entirely representative of a career in which she has made bold choices and excelled in vastly different parts, also typified by her Golden Globe-winning performance with the same director in “I’m Not There” in which she plays an incarnation of Bob Dylan.
Each year at the LFF Awards Ceremony a BFI Fellowship is bestowed on a film luminary. Previous BFI Fellowships have been presented at the ceremony to Stephen Frears in 2014, the late Sir Christopher Lee — given the honour by his friend Johnny Depp — in 2013, Tim Burton and Helena Bonham Carter in 2012 and Ralph Fiennes, who was presented his BFI Fellowship by friend Liam Neeson, in 2011. In the last year, Al Pacino and Mel Brooks were also awarded BFI Fellowships.
