Nicole Kidman has been unable to receive her award for best actress at the Venice Film Festival in person after the death of her “beautiful, brave” mother.
Kidman, 57, won the award for her performance as a CEO having an affair with a young intern, played by Harris Dickinson, in director Halina Reijn’s Babygirl.
Speaking to the audience at the festival on Saturday night via a note read out by Reijn, Kidman said her “heart is broken”.
It read: “Today I arrived in Venice to find out shortly after, that my beautiful, brave mother Janelle Ann Kidman has just passed.
“I am in shock and I have to go to my family, but this award is for her, she shaped me, she guided me, and she made me.
“I am beyond grateful that I get to say her name to all of you through Halina, the collision of life and art is heart-breaking, and my heart is broken.
“We love you all.”
The 81st edition of the film festival closed on Saturday, with Pedro Almodovar’s English-language debut The Room Next Door winning the festival’s most prestigious prize, the Golden Lion, which is awarded for best film.
The movie, which stars Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton, received a nearly 20-minute standing ovation when it premiered at the festival.
Venice’s last day also saw the world premiere of Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 2, and Vincent Lindon win best actor for his performance as a single father whose son is radicalised by the far right in French drama The Quiet Son.
The Luigi De Laurentiis award for a debut film was won by Sarah Friedland’s Familiar Touch, about an octogenarian’s transition to life in assisted living as she grapples with her age, memory and relationship to her caregivers.
The festival has seen the world premiere of Todd Phillips’ Joker: Folie A Deux, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga, and Luca Guadagnino’s William S Burroughs adaptation Queer, which stars Daniel Craig as a junkie expat obsessed with a young student.
