Cate Blanchett to receive Outstanding Performer of the Year Award from Santa Barbara Film Festival

Cate Blanchett will receive the Outstanding Performer of the Year Award at the 38th annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival. Blanchett will be honored on Friday, February 10, 2023 for her critically acclaimed portrayal of Lydia Tár in Todd Feld’s TÁR from Focus Features. Setting a historic record, this is the second time Blanchett will be feted at the festival as the Outstanding Performer of the Year. In 2014, she received the honor for her role as Jasmine French in Blue Jasmine, for which she also won the Oscar for Best Actress. In 2008, she was crowned the Modern Master Award for her role as Queen Elizabeth in Elizabeth: The Golden Age and as Bob Dylan in I’m Not There. 

“Cate Blanchett is an artist that has nothing left to prove; she is one of the most brilliant actresses ever – yet she keeps challenging herself and proving over and over again that she’s the most outstanding performer!” SBIFF’s Executive Director Roger Durling noted. 

An Academy Award-winning actor, producer, artistic director, humanitarian, and dedicated member of the arts community, Blanchett plays the titular role and executive produces Todd Field’s third feature film TÁR, which marks the writer-director-producer’s first film in over 15 years. The film was warmly welcomed at the Telluride Film Festival and Venice International Film Festival, where Blanchett was awarded the Coppa Volpi for Best Actress for her second time since I’m Not There. This fall, Blanchett will appear in Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio and the mockumentary hit series Documentary Now! She has now begun production in Australia on Warwick Thornton’s The New Boy, in which she stars and produces via the production company Dirty Films. She most recently wrapped production on Disclaimer, directed by Alfonso Cuarón, in which she also stars and executive produces. In 2021, Blanchett appeared in Adam McKay’s Oscar-nominated, Don’t Look Up, as well as Guillermo Del Toro’s Nightmare Alley.

The Outstanding Performer of the Year Award recognizes select individuals who have distinguished themselves with exceptional performances in film. Past recipients of the award include Will Smith and Aunjanue Ellis, Sacha Baron Cohen, Adam Driver, Rami Malek, Margot Robbie and Allison Janney, Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, Brie Larson and Saoirse Ronan, Steve Carell, Cate Blanchett, Jennifer Lawrence, Viola Davis, James Franco, Colin Firth, Penelope Cruz, Angelina Jolie, Helen Mirren, Heath Ledger, Kate Winslet and Charlize Theron.

The 38th Santa Barbara International Film Festival will take place LIVE February 8 – February 18, 2023. Official events including screenings, filmmaker Q&As, industry panels, and celebrity tributes, will be held throughout the city, including at the historic Arlington Theatre. Passes and tickets for the 2023 Festival are on sale now at sbiff.org. 

Last year, SBIFF returned to in-person screenings, panels, and events, where the festival had 48 world premiere, 95 U.S. premieres, with honorary awards feted on Javier Bardem, Nicole Kidman, Kristen Stewart, Penélope Cruz, Will Smith and Aunjanue Ellis, Benedict Cumberbatch, Caitriona Balfe, Ariana DeBose, Alana Haim, Ciarán Hinds, Emilia Jones, Troy Kotsur, Simon Rex, Saniyya Sidney, Paul Thomas Anderson, Kenneth Branagh, Jane Campion, Ryusuke Hamaguchi, and Steven Spielberg. Historically, A-list guests ascend to Santa Barbara, making it a must-stop location on the awards circuit, and the festival delivers an unprecedented number of films with many World and U.S. premieres. The film lineup and schedule will be announced January, 2023. 

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

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