Nicole Kidman Becomes First Australian to Earn AFI Lifetime Achievement Award

Nicole Kidman received the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award Saturday at a gala in Los Angeles, where she became the first-ever Australian to earn the honor.

Kidman co-stars like Meryl Streep, Reese Witherspoon, Naomi Watts, and Morgan Freeman — who spoofed Kidman’s iconic AMC ad at the ceremony — were on hand to celebrate the Oscar-winning Moulin Rouge actress. 

Fellow Australians Russell Crowe, Hugh Jackman and Cate Blanchett  also contributed video tributes to Kidman, who shouted out many of the directors she worked with — from Baz Luhrmann to Stanley Kubrick to Sofia Coppola — in her acceptance speech.

“It is a privilege to make films. And glorious to have made films and television with these storytellers who allowed me to run wild and be free and play all of these unconventional women,” Kidman said. “Thank you for making me better at my craft and giving me a place, however temporary, in this world.”

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Kidman joined 10 other actresses — including Meryl Streep, Bette Davis, Barbra Streisand, Diane Keaton, and Jane Fonda — as recipients of the AFI Life Achievement Award, and became only the third non-American-born actress — along with Julie Andrews and the British-born Elizabeth Taylor — to receive the honor.

The actress was initially set to receive the AFI award — “the highest honor in American cinema” — in June 2023, but the ceremony was postponed due to the Hollywood strikes; the TV special of the event will air June 17 on TNT.

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