Nicole Kidman is having quite a 2017. In January, she received her fourth Oscar nomination – her first in the Supporting Actress category – for her excellent performance in “Lion”. Her role of Celeste Wright on the HBO miniseries “Big Little Lies”, opposite Reese Witherspoon and Shailene Woodley, has been garnering Emmy attention. And now, she’s ready to take over the Cannes Film Festival: she’ll be seen in three films, “How to Talk to Girls at Parties”, “The Killing of a Sacred Deer” and “The Beguiled”, as well as in two episodes of the TV series “Top of the Lake”.
Kidman opened Cannes in 2001 with “Moulin Rouge!”, a film I watched for the first time recently. She earned a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination for her performance in the vivacious Baz Luhrmann musical. She also kicked-off the 2014 festival with “Grace of Monaco” – a drama that was supposed to be released in theaters by The Weinstein Co., but following awful reactions from the Cannes crowd, the theatrical distribution was pulled.
Instead, “Grace” premiered on Lifetime in May 2015. While the film had plenty of flaws, I actually thought Kidman did a nice job. Mild redemption: she earned a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Best Actress in a TV Movie or Miniseries, and “Grace” received an Emmy nom for Best TV Movie (to the surprise of many).
Kidman, who turns 50 in June, had a big run from the mid-90s to early 2000s: “To Die For”, “Eyes Wide Shut”, “Moulin”, “The Hours” (which won her an Oscar) and “Cold Mountain”. With “Lion”, “Big Little Lies”, “Top of the Lake” and a host of films, including 2018’s “Aquaman” as the title superhero’s mom, she’s currently in the second high point of her career.