Nicole Kidman wins Venice best actress for erotic 'Babygirl'

VENICE, Italy — Nicole Kidman won the best actress award in Venice Saturday for her no-holds-barred performance in "Babygirl," but was unable to pick it up after the unexpected death of her mother.

"I arrived in Venice to find out shortly after that, my beautiful, brave mother, Janelle M. Kidman, has just passed," the actress said in a statement read on her behalf by the film's Dutch director, Halina Reijn.

"I'm 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'm beyond grateful that I get to say her name to all of you through Halina.

"The collision of life and art is heartbreaking and my heart is broken."

Kidman, 57, played Romy, a married, high-powered New York CEO who embarks on a torrid, sado-masochistic affair with a new company intern.

Kidman won her Academy Award in 2003, for her transformation into writer Virginia Woolf in "The Hours."

Reinvention has been a theme in Kidman's storied career, her chameleonic skill taking the high school dropout from Australian teen movies, including "BMX Bandits" to Hollywood's A-list.

She has never lacked daring either, throwing herself in riskier indie roles throughout her four decades in film -- from Gus Van Sant's "To Die For" (1995), for which she won a Golden Globe, to Karyn Kusama's "Destroyer" (2018).

She was first nominated for the best actress Oscar in 2002, after her turn in fellow Australian Baz Luhrmann's "Moulin Rouge!," and scored another nomination in 2011 for "Rabbit Hole."

Another nomination followed, in 2017 for "Lion," the story of a young man from India adopted by an Australian family who searches for his long-lost relatives on Google Earth.

She was also nominated for an Oscar two years ago, for her role as queen of comedy Lucille Ball in "Being the Ricardos."

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