Two-time Oscar-winner Cate Blanchett added to her stack of global honors on Wednesday, accepting Japan’s prestigious Praemium Imperiale award at a black-tie ceremony in Tokyo.
At a news conference ahead of the presentation, the actress used the occasion to reflect on the value of creative uncertainty — and the destructive hubris of its opposite.
“In an uncertain world riddled with unthinking certainty I believe doubt is vital to the creative process,” Blanchett said. “It’s what starts the challenge, the questioning, the exploration. It allows conversation and connection. It allows change.”
Presented by the Japan Art Association, the Praemium Imperiale recognizes lifetime achievement across five disciplines: painting, sculpture, architecture, music and theater/film. Often described as the Nobel Prize of the arts, the honor places Blanchett among good company — past theater and film recipients have included Federico Fellini, Akira Kurosawa, Jean-Luc Godard, Martin Scorsese, Judi Dench and Catherine Deneuve. Ang Lee was the last Hollywood-associated recipient, taking the prize in 2024.
Japan’s Princess Hitachi presented Blanchett with her medal at the Meiji Kinenkan in Tokyo’s Moto-Akasaka district. Each laureate also receives a testimonial letter and an honorarium of 15 million yen (just under $100,000). This year’s other recipients were American artist Jenny Holzer, British sculptor Andy Goldsworthy, American architect Daniel Libeskind and Swedish conductor Herbert Blomstedt.
Cate Blanchett receives a testimonial letter during the 2026 Praemium Imperiale Awards Ceremony at Meiji Kinenkan in Tokyo, Japan.
Blanchett used her acceptance speech to offer a meditation on the limits of language and how artistic work finds its power in the inexpressable. Opening her remarks with a reference to surrealist artist Leonora Carrington, she described acting as “a profession that at its worst sinks into a quagmire of literalness but at its best can leave people speechless.”
Her creative starting point, she explained, is often the mysterious gap between what a character says and what they can’t seem to convey with language.
“I always look for meaning, for opportunity in the spaces between what is said, in what is not said, in what people are trying to say, in what they wish they had said and in what they wish they had not,” she said.
That search, Blanchett suggested, requires a willingness to remain unsure, even when uncertainty is read as weakness.
“The doubt that I will ever fully communicate is always with me. And as a woman that doubt is often interpreted as a lack of confidence. It is not. That doubt is my artistic starting point,” she said. “It’s what allows me to hear, it allows me to see, it allows me to sense.”
Continuing to take artistic risks over a long career, she added, requires courage and rigor — qualities she praised in her fellow laureates.
Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who serves as the prize’s U.S. international adviser, was also present at the press conference. Clinton is part of the international advisory network whose committees recommend candidates, with the final selections made by the Japan Art Association.
Clinton said the prize makes “a global declaration that artists and culture are essential pillars of our societies,” arguing that its role has only become more important amid threats to democratic values and the anxieties surrounding artificial intelligence.
“It’s also, I think, even more essential that we bolster the arts in a time when we are facing the transformations being brought about by artificial intelligence,” she said, making a call to rein in the technology’s risks while preserving the human capacities of imagination and connection.
Blanchett’s visit to Japan will next include appearances at the 39th Tokyo International Film Festival, which runs through Nov. 4. On Friday, she is scheduled to join filmmakers Mohammad Rasoulof and Shahrbanoo Sadat for a Q&A following the Japanese premieres of five shorts supported by the Displacement Film Fund, the initiative she co-founded and leads to support displaced filmmakers.
Later Friday, she is due to appear with directors David and Nathan Zellner for a discussion accompanying their alien comedy Alpha Gang, in which she stars.
Blanchett concluded her Tokyo remarks on Wednesday with characteristic poise.
“I am profoundly grateful to have this honor bestowed upon me,” she said. “It’s an Olympus of sorts that I never conceived of even touching. It’s a beautiful, soul-soaring surprise, and a deep honor indeed.”
