The Australian actress and producer Cate Blanchett received the first Donostia Award of the San Sebastian Festival's 72nd edition this evening at the gala in the Kursaal Centre, where she considered it an "honour" to receive the event's highest accolade and gave an impassioned defence of the "desire to know".

Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón, for whom Blanchett has just worked on the miniseries Disclaimer, presented the statuette to the actress, whom he praised for her rigour and virtuosity, while actor George Clooney congratulated her in a video.

"As an Australian working overseas, I have had the great privilege of crossing many borders and travelling the world. And it is an honour to receive this award in the Basque Country, in this wonderful and vibrant festival that also transcends cultural and cinematographic borders," she began her speech.

After thanking Cuarón for his presence, she described as "eclectic and strange" a career that has taken her to many places, although the common thread of her career has been "the desire to know" and to unravel what it means to be human. "A creative life like ours implies doubts and uncertainties. We need to be humble and say: 'I don't know and I'm here to learn", she proclaimed, resisting the desire to find quick answers.

In this sense, she quoted the Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector, who defended that not knowing has certain advantages and makes the mind a virgin and free territory. "And so everything I don't know begins to be part of me, and in this not knowing I begin to understand everything", she said, before concluding: "I have hope, the journey goes on. There are only small islands of certainty like this one, and I thank San Sebastian for it".

In his congratulatory video, Clooney praised Blanchett as part of a "unique legacy" of performers who elevate acting to an art form, citing Marlon Brando, Katharine Hepburn, Montgomery Clift, Jack Nicholson and the fellow Donostia Award recipients Meryl Streep and Robert De Niro. "I've been lucky enough to direct you and to act with you. And you always make everyone around you feel lucky that we get a chance to work with someone who is so gifted. And I'm proud to call you are a friend", he said.

"I'm excited for you to receive the Donostia Award at the San Sebastian Festival. I wish I was there. I can't be there because I'm in Venice right now and I'm drinking. And also, I'm wearing no pants. But if I was wearing pants and I wasn't drinking, I wasn't in Venice, I'd be there to raise a glass and toast you on this terrific award. Congratulations", he concluded with a touch of humour.

Commitment to excellence and risk

The ceremony was presented by the actress from San Sebastian, Marta Etura, who applauded Blanchett as someone who, in her work, "is committed to excellence and risk", and whose stamp is playing "characters who are complicated and send a message, strong and committed women". She has also made her mark as a theatre director and producer of projects connected to feminism, immigration and the Aboriginal people of her native Australia.

Blanchett, who features on the official poster of the Festival's 72nd edition, boasts more than 200 acknowledgements and awards, including two Oscars (with another six nominations), two Volpi Cups from the Venice Festival, four BAFTA awards and four Golden Globes, the Honorary César and the International Goya amassed over a career spanning more than three decades and combining independent movies with crowd pleasers. She has worked with filmmakers including Martin Scorsese, Terrence Malick, Steven Soderbergh, Steven Spielberg, David Fincher, Ridley Scott, Sally Potter, Wes Anderson, Alfonso Cuarón, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Woody Allen, Gillian Armstrong, Taika Waititi, Peter Jackson, Todd Haynes, Richard Linklater, Jim Jarmusch, Guillermo del Toro, Adam McKay and Todd Field.

The ceremony was followed by the screening of Rumours, one of Blanchett's latest acting roles, working in this case under the orders of Guy Maddin, Galen Johnson and Evan Johnson.