Nicole Kidman to be honoured with 49th AFI Life Achievement Award

Nicole Kidman
| Photo Credit: ERIC GAILLARD

The American Film Institute (AFI) will honour Hollywood star Nicole Kidman with its 49th Lifetime Achievement Award, the organisation has announced.

Kidman, 55, is the first Australian actor to receive this award, “the highest honor for a career in film, celebrating her career achievements thus far”.

According to the Institute, the award will be presented to Kidman at a Gala Tribute at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on June 10, 2023.

“Nicole Kidman has enchanted audiences for decades with the daring of her artistry and the glamour of a screen icon. She is a force both brave in her choices and bold in each performance. AFI is honored to present her with the 49th AFI Life Achievement Award,” said Kathleen Kennedy, Chair of the AFI Board of Trustees in a statement.

Equally at home with independent cinema and studio spectacles, Kidman has worked with directors across genres including Jane Campion, Sofia Coppola, Baz Luhrmann, Aaron Sorkin, Lars von Trier and Stanley Kubrick.

Some of her movie credits are “Dead Calm”, “Moulin Rouge!”, “Days of Thunder”, “Cold Mountain”, “Eyes Wide Shut”, and “Aquaman”, among others.

She is a five-time Academy Award nominee, who won the Oscar for best actress in a leading role for her transformational turn as Virginia Woolf in Stephen Daldry’s “The Hours” in 2003. Kidman is also the recipient of one BAFTA Award, two Emmys for “Big Little Lies” and six Golden Globes. She co-founded her production company Blossom Films in 2010.

This year the actor starred in Robert Eggers’ Viking epic “The Northman”.

In theatre, Kidman made a highly-lauded London stage debut in the fall of 1998, starring with Iain Glen in “The Blue Room”, David Hare’s modern adaptation of Schnitzler’s “La Ronde”.

For her performance, Kidman won London’s Evening Standard Award and was nominated in the best actress category for a Laurence Olivier Award. In 2015, Kidman was seen on the West End stage in Anna Ziegler’s “Photograph 51”, for which she received the Evening Standard Award.

Her upcoming projects include Lulu Wang’s “Expats” and “Holland, Michigan”, both for Amazon, and “Lioness” (Paramount+).  Hollywood veteran Julie Andrews was the recipient of last year’s AFI Life Achievement Award.