Nicole Kidman skips receiving Best Actress award at Venice Film Festival due to her mother's death: 'I am in shock'

Hollywood star Nicole Kidman couldn't receive her award for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival in person because of the death of her "beautiful, brave" mother. The actress won the award for her role of a CEO, who has an affair with a young intern, played by Harris Dickinson, in director Halina Reijn's Babygirl, reports Mirror.co.uk.

Speaking to the audience at the festival on Saturday night through 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."

As per Mirror.co.uk, the actress had paid tribute to her late mother earlier this year when she became the first Australian to be honoured with the esteemed American Film Institute Lifetime Achievement Award. At the time, she addressed the fact her mother could not see her be honoured due to ill health. She said in April, "My mama is not here, but she sent me a card and I was weeping". The Australian actress continued, "So this is for her, she's been there through all of it since I was a little girl crying on the bed, going, 'mama, they didn't want me, I'm not pretty enough, I'm too tall, I'm covered in freckles, I'm this, I'm that', And she's always cheered me on, so this is for her."

The 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival concluded on Saturday. Filmmaker Pedro Almodovar's English-language debut The Room Next Door bagged 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 winning 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 the Best 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.

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