Nicole Kidman Tribute (Cinema Vanguard Award, 2011): Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2011

Reviewed by Ulrika Bjorck at Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2011

At the historic Arlington theatre, on Saturday the 5^th, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival took the great opportunity to honor Nicole Kidman for her work over the years, with the Cinema Vanguard Award. This specific award was created for an actor/actress who has been contributing to film in a unique and significant way, and also who has been taking artistic risks in work. Roger Durling was the moderator of the evening and hosted the Q&A with Nicole Kidman. He did it in a very relaxed and easygoing way, and I was kind of surprised of how natural the whole conversation was, and how engaged I, as audience, felt in the conversation as well.

Roger Durling, who is also the director of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, began the tribute by presenting Nicole Kidman with various different film clips from her career over the years, starting with her latest success “the Rabbit hole”, which she is also Oscar nominated for as best actress.

As Roger called her name and welcomed her up on stage she stood up from her seat in the audience, tall and stunningly beautiful.

What struck me right away that evening was that even though she is such a star of a very high range, she was pleasantly down to earth. And this is something that made it so much easier for me to relate to her. I felt like I really got to know her in a way. She was both open-minded and had a great sense of humor. I never realized she was so “normal”, I have to admit that I had the impression of her being a little stiff. But I was really glad to see the real Nicole Kidman and hear all of her stories about films she has done, and other adventures in her life; how she got this far. And I have to say that I believe that one of the main reason that she is where she is today, is her ability to take the right risks, but of course also because of her incredible skill for acting.

Nicole Kidman was the only celebrity during all the tributes of this festival that actually arrived to the red carpet for interviews, autographs, photos etc. in time, or even in advance. This was kind of nice for a change because that means that the Q&A also was able to start in time. I think this says much about her as a person. Because already at this point she showed us that she is a person that is down to earth and respects other people.

After the interview was done, I sneaked away to the back of the theater, where her driver was waiting to take her back home. Once again Nicole was incredible sweet to her fans waiting for her, by letting them take photos on her and with her, and of course she signed some autographs as well.

She ended her appearance with “I’m sorry everybody, but actually I have to leave now, I miss my kids back home”.