CATE BLANCHETT TO BE JURY PRESIDENT OF THE MAIN COMPETITION AT EnergaCAMERIMAGE 2024

Thursday June 6th, 2024

There are artists who need no special introduction, and whatever is written about them always seems to merely scratch the tip of the iceberg of their talent and achievements. One of them is certainly Cate Blanchett, an Australian film and theatre actress, holder of two Oscars®, and dedicated member of the arts community. In November, Cate Blanchett will be in Toruń, Poland at the 32nd edition of EnergaCAMERIMAGE, where she will preside as Jury President for the Main Competition.

Films are lightning in a bottle, and I have had the profound creative privilege of working with some of the great lightning catchers – cinematographers who have forever changed the way I work and the way I look at the world. To be at CAMERIMAGE in their midst en masse is a fever dream come true.

Cate Blanchett

Cate is an outstanding artist who defies all definitions. She inspires many people around the world, including the greatest contemporary artists. She is sensitive to the problems of others and ready to help. Her arrival and meeting with the festival guests will undoubtedly be extremely creative. I am proud and happy that she accepted the invitation and agreed to become the Chairman of the Main Competition Jury.

Marek Żydowicz
EnergaCAMERIMAGE Director

photo by Steven Chee

A true icon of our times, Cate Blanchett is one of the most outstanding actresses in the history of cinema. Her versatile skills and commitment to a broad spectrum of artistic activity, producer’s intuition and humanitarian work are as valued as her acting career, which has spanned more than 30 years, and continues to inspire millions around the world.

Many films that Blanchett has been involved with have figured prominently at EnergaCAMERIMAGE over the years, including awards winners. She first gained worldwide acclaim for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth I in the film Elizabeth (1998, dir. Shekar Kapur), earning her first Oscar® nomination. For this title Remi Adefarasin took home the Golden Frog at CAMERIMAGE 1999. In 2008 she received two Oscar® nominations, for Best Actress for Elizabeth: The Golden Age by Shekhar Kapur (with whom she collaborated 10 years earlier in Elizabeth) and best supporting actress for I’m Not There by Todd Haynes, a motion picture that earned Ed Lachman the Bronze Frog at CAMERIMAGE 2007. Cate Blanchett was also nominated for her performance in Carol (2015, dir. Todd Haynes) and Tár (2022, dir. Todd Field), both of which she served as executive producer. These titles earned huge recognition and each won Golden Frogs at EnergaCAMERIMAGE – Ed Lachman, this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award laureate, received the honor for Carol, and Florian Hoffmeister for Tár.

Cate Blanchett and Aswan Reid. The New Boy

Alongside Andrew Upton and Coco Francini, Blanchett is a co-Founder and Principal of Dirty Films, the production company behind, among other films, Warwick Thornton’s The New Boy (which she also appeared in). Last year Thornton was awarded the Golden Frog for the film, marking the first time a Cinematographer/Director has won the top prize.

Cate Blanchett presided over festival juries at the Cannes Film Festival in 2018 and the Venice International Film Festival 2020.

We are honoured that it is Cate Blanchett assuming the role of Jury President of the Main Competition at EnergaCAMERIMAGE International Film Festival which will take place between 16-23 November 2024 in Torun, Kujawy Pomorze Region, Poland.

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Cate Blanchett is an internationally acclaimed actor, producer, artistic director, humanitarian and dedicated member of the arts community. She is the co-Founder and Principal of film and television production company Dirty Films, alongside her partners Andrew Upton and Coco Francini, which recently launched “Proof of Concept”, a program offering financial support, mentorship and exhibition opportunities to emerging filmmakers. For the company, in 2023 Blanchett produced and appeared in Warwick Thornton’s award-winning The New Boy. She also produced Christos Nikou’s Apple Original Films feature Fingernails, with Jessie Buckley, Riz Ahmed and Jeremy Allen White, and Noora Niasari’s award-winning debut feature Shayda, starring Zar Amir Ebrahimi.

With Dirty Films her producing credits include Todd Haynes’ Carol, Todd Field’s Tár, Christos Nikou’s Apples, the 10-time Emmy nominated Mrs. America for FX and producing and co-creating the 13-time AACTA-winning series Stateless for Netflix. She also created and produced the award-winning Audible Original podcast Climate of Change, and produced Evolver, a VR interactive experience.

Blanchett’s acting credits include: Tár, Nightmare Alley, Don’t Look Up, Ocean’s 8, Thor: Ragnorok, Carol, Blue Jasmine, I’m Not There, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Notes on a Scandal, The Life Aquatic, Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy and The Hobbit, The Good German, The Aviator, The Talented Mr. Ripley and Elizabeth. She has won countless awards including four BAFTAs, two Academy Awards®, three Golden Globes and three Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Blanchett served alongside Andrew Upton as co-Artistic Director and co-CEO of the multi award winning Sydney Theatre Company between 2008-2013, producing 16 shows a year across 4 stages, which toured extensively nationally and internationally. Their most notable productions include; Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, directed by Liv Ullmann; Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya, directed by Tamás Ascher, Steven Soderbergh’s Tot Mom; Benedict Andrews' highly acclaimed productions of The War of The Roses, Jean Genet’s The Maids and Botho Strauss’ Gross und Klein (eng. Big and Small), the seminal adaptation of The Secret River by Neil Armfield which has since inspired the title-sharing ABC television series; productions by director Kip Williams; and Andrew Upton’s The Present directed by John Crowley for which Blanchett earned a Tony Award nomination. Blanchett was most recently on stage in the adaptation of Martin Crimp’ National Theatre production When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other.

Blanchett and Upton were awarded with the Green Globe Award for their influential work at Sydney Theatre Company, having transformed the company into one of the world’s greenest arts organizations, including the erection of Australia’s second-largest rooftop solar array.

She has presided over festival juries in Cannes and Venice, and The Venice Film Festival has twice awarded her with The Volpi Cup for Best Performance. Blanchett holds a BFI Fellowship from the BFI London Film Festival, has received the Stanley Kubrick Award for Excellence in Film and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Numerous other accolades include the Honorary Cesar, International Goya and Chaplin Awards. Blanchett has been appointed Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France, named a Companion of the Order of Australia, presented with a Centenary Medal for service to Australian Society, and has been awarded Honorary Doctorates by the University of New South Wales, the University of Sydney and Macquarie University.

Blanchett is a Global Goodwill Ambassador for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and is a member of the Earthshot Prize Council. She received the Crystal Award at the World Economic Forum in Davos and the Kuwait-America Foundation Humanitarian Award, is lifetime member of the Australian Conservation Foundation, a strong supporter of the Actors Benevolent Fund, the SAG-AFTRA Foundation, the Australian Wildlife Conservancy, an AFI Ambassador and Patron of the Sydney Film Festival and the NIDA Foundation, the drama school at which she trained. She lives in the English countryside with her husband, four children, three dogs, two cats, pigs and chickens.