Australian actor Cate Blanchett will receive a lifetime achievement award at Spain's San Sebastian film festival in September, organisers said Thursday.

The 54-year-old will also feature on the festival'ss main poster.

Blanchett has two Academy Awards: best actress for her performance in Woody Allen's 2004 drama "Blue Jasmine"; and best supporting actress for her striking appearance as Katherine Hepburn in Martin Scorsese's "The Aviator".

She is "one of contemporary cinema's leading actors" with a "career combining cinema d'auteur with crowd pleasers", festival organisers said in a statement.

Past recipients of the Donostia award -- the festival's highest honour -- include actors Meryl Streep, Richard Gere and Robert De Niro.

Blanchett, a university dropout who grew up in suburban Melbourne, will be only the second Australian actor to receive the prize after Hugh Jackman.

As well as scooping awards for her more arthouse work, she has also dabbled in blockbusters.

She starred in "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" opposite Harrison Ford; played the elf Galadriel in the "Lord of the Rings" series; and even took a turn as a Marvel villain in "Thor: Ragnarok".

The 72nd San Sebastian film festival, the highest-profile movie event in the Spanish-speaking world, takes place from September 20 to 28.

The Donostia is named after the Basque word for the coastal town of San Sebastian.