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US honours Nicole Kidman
Oscar-winning Australian superstar Nicole Kidman will be honoured with a special achievement award from a top US film preservation group.
Kidman's latest honour follows a string of varied and highly acclaimed roles which have seen her break out of the shadow of ex-husband Tom Cruise into superstardom in her own right.
Kidman will receive the 18th annual American Cinematheque Award at a ceremony in Los Angeles on November 14.
"Her Academy Award this year reflects just one of a series of daring and demanding performances," the American Cinemateque's Rick Nicita said.
"Her unique ability to balance art house independents with the commercial mainstream has made her one of the most sought-after actresses in movies today."
Kidman was the unanimous choice of the Cinematheque Board of Directors selection committee, which since 1986 has annually honoured a writer, actor or director in the entertainment industry.
Other recent winners have included Denzel Washington, Nicolas Cage, Bruce Willis and Jodie Foster.
The 35-year-old's movie career hit a high point in March when she won the best actress Oscar for her role as Virginia Woolf in the film The Hours.
Her other films include Moulin Rouge (2001), Eyes Wide Shut (1997), To Die For and Days of Thunder with Cruise, from whom she was divorced last year after a 10-year marriage.
Nicole Kidman leads Aussie Oscar charge
The Academy Awards ceremony is six months away, but Nicole Kidman's quest to join Katharine Hepburn in the Oscar record books is about to enter an important phase.
On two continents, thousands of miles from the Hollywood sign, Kidman and the studios backing her push for consecutive golden statuettes have begun generating the buzz. This week she is in Venice, Italy. Next week she will be in Toronto, Canada. But the Australian actress won't be alone.
Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, Naomi Watts, Toni Collette, and Jane Campion also begin their campaigns for Oscar nominations at one or both of the film festivals.
"The Australian presence will definitely be very strong here," Steve Gravestock, the Toronto Film Festival's manager of programming, told AAP.
The importance of the Venice and Toronto festivals grew this year after the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recently re-scheduled its 2004 Oscars ceremony to February 29, a month earlier than its traditional late March date.
To qualify for next year's Oscars, a film must screen in the US during the 2003 calendar year.
Traditionally, most Oscar-bound films are released in US cinemas in November or December to keep them fresh in the minds of Academy voters.
With the Oscars ceremony being held in February, instead of March, the studios have one less month to build the buzz, putting Venice and Toronto at the starting point of some campaigns.
"When we've talked to some of the film-makers, they have specifically mentioned they were thinking of Toronto as part of their Academy campaigns," Gravestock said.
Kidman won her first best actress Academy Award in March for her role in The Hours . The last actress to win consecutive best actress Oscars was Katharine Hepburn (1967 Guess Who's Coming to Dinner ; 1968 The Lion in Winter ). Luise Rainer is the only other actress to have done it (1936 and 1937).
Kidman has three Oscar-quality performances for Academy voters to consider for the 2004 ceremony: The Human Stain, Dogville, and Cold Mountain .
The Human Stain is being shown out of competition in Venice, and will be screened in Toronto on September 6. Kidman plays a rough, tattooed, auburn-haired cleaner who has an affair with a former college dean played by Anthony Hopkins.
Dogville , written and directed by Denmark's Lars von Trier, premiered at the Cannes film festival in May, and has its North American premiere in Toronto on September 7.
Miramax's US civil war epic Cold Mountain, starring Kidman, Jude Law, and Renee Zellweger, is due to open in the US in December.
Other Australians with Oscar potential projects in Venice are Rush, Blanchett and Watts.
Rush's Intolerable Cruelty, with Billy Bob Thornton and George Clooney, will be screened out of competition in Venice, as will Blanchett's black-and-white Coffee and Cigarettes .
Watts's 21 Grams, starring Sean Penn and Benicio Del Toro, is the only US film to make it into the Venice competition. Watts plays a drug addict in 21 Grams, a movie that will also be shown in Toronto.
Blanchett has two films in Toronto: Coffee and Cigarettes, and Veronica Guerin .
She has already received brilliant reviews for her role as a courageous journalist in Veronica Guerin, a Joel Schumacher directed film set in 1990s Dublin.
Toronto organisers have honoured Australian comedy Danny Deckchair, starring Miranda Otto, by naming it as the festival's Closing Night Gala Presentation.
"It's a very prominent slot," Gravestock said.
"It's always good to end on a comedy, and Danny Deckchair is a very sweet, heart-warming, eccentric and unusual comedy. And, to be honest, I think it's probably one of the better closing night films we've had."
Collette's Australian film, Japanese Story, also has a prominent position in Toronto.
It is directed by Sue Brooks, and set in the Australian outback.
Toronto festival organisers have described Collette's performance as being among "the best of her career".
New Zealand-born Oscar winner Jane Campion is making another run at the Academy Awards, this year with thriller In the Cut. It stars Meg Ryan and Jennifer Jason Leigh, and has its world premiere in Toronto.
Alexandra's Project (starring Gary Sweet and written and directed by Rolf de Heer) and the low-budget horror film Undead (directed by Australian twins Peter and Michael Spierig) also will screen in Toronto.
The other Australian project in Toronto is Tom Zubrycki's documentary Molly and Mobarak , a film that follows Afghan refugee Mobarak Tahiri as he tries to assimilate in the NSW country town of Young.
"We've always had a tradition of showing a lot of Australian films because our audiences are really up for it," Gravestock said.
"One of the first big successes we had was The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith in 1978, so there's a long-running history with Australian film."
The Venice festival began last week, and finishes on September 6.
The Toronto festival runs from September 4 to 13.
Accolades galore for Nicole Kidman
Sydney: A searing performance in "The Human Stain", even before its premiere, has won actress Nicole Kidman critical acclaims at the Venice Film Festival.
Kidman will not attend the festival because of work commitments. Critics applauded a preview of the film starring Kidman and Anthony Hopkins at the weekend. Hopkins received a standing ovation when he arrived at a press conference, says a report in The Australian.
Directed by Robert Benton, it is based on the novel by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Philip Roth and is being shown out of competition at Venice.
The film unfolds the story of Coleman Silk (Hopkins), a light-skinned black man who passes himself off as white to escape bigotry in 1940s America. Later, when his past comes back to haunt him, Silk loses his job and his wife before embarking on a disastrous affair with an abused woman, played by Kidman.
According to the report, "The Human Stain" will be released in September, followed by Kidman's next three films, "Lars von Trier's Dogville", the mystery drama "Birth" and the American Civil War movie "Cold Mountain".
"Not only is (Kidman) a great actress but a great source of strength. Whatever you want she will do it. She will take extraordinary risks. I think she has grown as an artist," Benton said. ANI
IN THE CUT
Based on the best-selling novel by Susanna Moore, In the Cutis a psychological thriller starring Meg Ryan and directed by Jane Campion. Ryan plays a lonely New York woman who discovers the darker side of passion after becoming involved with a tough homicide detective who is investigating a series of murders in her neighborhood. Mark Ruffalo and Jennifer Jason Leigh co-star. This film is not yet rated by the MPAA.
RELEASE: October 24
DIRECTOR: Jane Campion
WRITER: Jane Campion & Susanna Moore
PRODUCERS: Laurie Parker & Nicole Kidman
CAST: Meg Ryan, Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Jason Leigh & Nick Damici