Actress Cate Blanchett was honored on Friday night with the Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s Outstanding Performer of the Year award for her critically acclaimed portrayal of Lydia Tár in Todd Field’s “Tár”.

The sold-out event marked the third time that Blanchett has been feted at the festival, recognized previously for her roles in Blue Jasmine, Queen Elizabeth in Elizabeth: The Golden Age and as Bob Dylan in I’m Not There. 

“Cate’s portrayal as Lydia Tár is one the greatest performances in film history,” said Santa Barbara International Film Festival Executive Director Roger Durling. 

In fact, her performance in “Tár” has already earned Blanchett best actress accolades from New York, L.A., and London film critics, the National Society of Film Critics, and the Critic’s Choice Association, making her the only person ever to win all five of those categories, and she has done so twice. 

The Hollywood Reporter’s executive editor of awards Scott Feinberg interviewed Blanchett, discussing many of the roles she has held over the past 26 years on screen and stage.

“I feel most free when I’m on the stage,” Blanchett said. “And that’s what was so great about doing “Tár”, because it had that performance element.”

“Theater is my first love,” Blanchett admitted.  “Part of what I really love about theater is the very direct relationship actors have with the audience; the audience absolutely impacts how the evening unfolds – the mood, the atmosphere, the texture of moments changes according to the audience. It’s not a passive experience.”

The impermanence of live theater doesn’t bother Blanchett. She said, unlike her character Lydia Tár, Blanchett doesn’t think about legacy.

“The character in “Tár” is very obsessed with legacy and I think it’s a way of side-stepping the experience of living your life.”

When it comes to her personal life, Blanchett spoke about taking a 5-year hiatus from the big screen to have her third child and to run the Sydney Theater Company with her husband.

That was where Blanchett had gotten her first job, and “it was a life-changing decision,” she said.

During this time, Blanchett reprised her role as Blanche DuBois in “A Streetcar Named Desire” to widespread critical acclaim.

Blanchett was asked about the difficulty of playing the conservative figure Phyllis Sclafly on “Mrs. America,” portraying a character whose views are very different from her own. 

“I find it really tragic that all over the world, women have been divided from each other along political lines that are often drawn by men, and perhaps in our small way this miniseries can help bridge across that divide to find those points of connection.”

“Tár” writer and director Todd Field presented the Outstanding Performer Award, which recognizes individuals who have distinguished themselves with exceptional performances in film during the past year. 

 “Cate is truly one of the great minds and hearts you’ll ever come across,” he said.

“Among many other things, and with accomplishments that would make Lydia Tár pale by comparison, Cate is an activist, a humanitarian, a working mother, and the best-dressed woman in the world,” said Field.   

“How lucky I am and how lucky the world is to live in a time when Cate Blanchett graces our stages, our screens and walks the earth for our common good.”

“’Tár’ shifted my sense of what is possible, and I thank Todd Field for profoundly changing me in ways I have yet to understand,” said Blanchett.

She also thanked the film festival, composer Hildur Guðnadóttir, the Dresden Philharmonic Symphony, and the “spirited, film-loving Santa Barbara community,” among many others.

“I often think about what we decide makes a successful film — is it one that wins awards or one that withstands the test of time?” Blanchett asked.

“Rather than considering if you like a film or not is perhaps not as useful an assessment as considering what the film is trying to do, and shifting us into uncomfortable, difficult places can change our perspectives.”