Nicole Kidman Misses Venice Film Festival Awards Due to Mother’s Death

Nicole Kidman arrived in Italy for the Venice Film Festival awards but had to leave shortly after landing due to the sudden death of her mother, Janelle Ann Kidman.

The Perfect Couple star took home the prize for best actress for Babygirl at the Italian festival but was not in attendance to accept the award. Instead, her director, Halina Reijn, accepted the award on the actress’ behalf.

“I’m in shock, and I have to go to my family, but this award is for her,” Reijn said when she took the stage. “I am beyond grateful that I get to say her name to all of you. The collision of life and art is heartbreaking, and my heart is broken.”

Brady Corbet, who accepted the Silver Lion for best director following the announcement of the best actress award, offered his condolences to Kidman at the top of his speech.

In early January 2022, Kidman shared that her mother was in poor health but did not provide further information at the time.

“We’re down here [in Australia] primarily to take care of my mother and to have her surrounded by her grandchildren,” the Oscar-winning actress said on NPR’s Fresh Air podcast. “So luckily, last — yesterday, even though [COVID-19 strain] Omicron is raging through this country, we were able to take her into the gallery after hours and show her the Matisse exhibit, which, coming from a mother who’s raised me in the arts was very, very – it was soothing balm.”

The Big Little Lies star previously revealed that her mother has been a driving force in her career, always pushing for her to focus on herself.

“She’s given me the fire to pursue the career I have because I’ve always wanted to please her,” Kidman told The Sydney Morning Herald in 2020. “But she also carved her own path and wanted her daughters to have the same opportunity to carve their own paths.”

She continued, “Mum didn’t necessarily get the career that she wanted, but she was determined that her daughters would have opportunities that were equal. That’s given me my life. And she gave me my life, she and my dad.”