Cate Blanchett is to join the Fellowship for real – this time at the BFI London Film Festival.

The Oscar-winning Australian actress, who starred in Peter Jackson’s Lord Of The Rings and The Hobbit trilogies, will be presented with the festival’s top honour, the BFI Fellowship, at the awards ceremony on Saturday October 17 at Banqueting House in Whitehall.

Matthew McConaughey, Cate Blanchett, Lupita Nyong'o and Jared Leto
Matthew McConaughey, Cate Blanchett, Lupita Nyong’o and Jared Leto at the 2014 Oscars (Ian West/PA)

Cate, who also played Queen Elizabeth I in Elizabeth and sequel Elizabeth: The Golden Age, won Best Actress for her portrayal of a socialite, who had fallen from grace, in Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine in 2013 and Best Supporting Actress in Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator in 2004.

The star of stage and screen joins previous recipients of the Fellowship such as Danny Boyle, Stephen Frears, Al Pacino, Tim Burton and Helena Bonham Carter, Ralph Fiennes and the late Christopher Lee, who have all been recognised for their outstanding contribution to film or television.

Danny Boyle received the BFI Fellowship in 2010
Danny Boyle received the BFI Fellowship in 2010 (Ian West/PA)

Cate will be in the capital for the UK premieres of Todd Haynes’s drama Carol and the film Truth, the latter in which she portrays news journalist Mary Mapes alongside Robert Redford as 60 Minutes producer Dan Rather.

Based on Mapes’s book Truth And Duty, Truth focuses on the risks the CBS reporter took to find the “truth” and expose a story on the then president George W Bush.

In Carol, the 46-year-old actress plays a woman trapped in a loveless marriage who falls for a young woman (Rooney Mara) in 1950s Manhattan.

BFI chairman Greg Dyke said: “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.”

Suffragette, starring Meryl Streep and Carey Mulligan, will open the BFI London Film Festival on October 7, while Danny Boyle’s Steve Jobs biopic will close the festival on October 18.