Stewart said its selection as the opener signals the London Film Festival's desire to ask "what can we be doing to break down the barriers for women directors and how can we be ensuring that the debate is front and center for the film industry?" [...] Cate Blanchett — star of two festival entries, the lesbian romance "Carol" and the journalism drama "Truth" — will receive the British Film Institute Fellowship, a career honor. Founded in 1957 to show the best of the year's world cinema to a British audience, the London Film Festival has boosted its profile in recent years with bigger movies, more glittering stars and prizes to boost emerging awards-season contenders.