The screening of "I'm Not There" at the Toronto Film Festival earlier this month left many in the aisles whispering "Academy Award" in reference to just one member of the ensemble cast — Cate Blanchett.
Todd Haynes' Bob Dylan biopic, which casts Blanchett, Heath Ledger, Christian Bale and Richard Gere as incarnations of one of the world's greatest musicians, has already earned the 38-year-old Australian the best actress award at this year's Venice International Film Festival. It is likely to push audiences' admiration for Blanchett's versatility off the meter.
Since the beginning of the year, Blanchett has turned in four acclaimed and extraordinarily varied performances: as a tourist wounded in a freak gun accident in Morocco in "Babel"; as a deliciously Marlene Dietrich-type femme fatale in "The Good German," which opens in Japan this weekend; as the powerful Virgin Queen in "Elizabeth: The Golden Age"; and now upstaging the guys in the role of a man in "I'm Not There." She also signed on to star in the fourth installment of the "Indiana Jones" series, due out next year.