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Devastated Kidman awarded special Cannes prize, misses ceremony

Nicole Kidman accepted her special Cannes award via video.

Nicole Kidman accepted her special Cannes award via video. Photo: Getty

Nicole Kidman says she’s “absolutely devastated” to miss the Cannes Film Festival awards ceremony after being awarded a special prize to celebrate the event’s 70th anniversary.

This year’s top prize at Cannes, the Palme d’Or, went to Swedish filmmaker Ruben Ostlund’s satire The Square, a film about the curator of a museum filled with pretentious conceptual art.

Sofia Coppola, meanwhile, became only the second woman to win the best director award.

Kidman wasn’t at the French Riviera ceremony on Sunday night but sent a video message from her home in Nashville, Tennessee.

The Australian actress appeared in four productions at this year’s competition including The Killing of a Sacred Deer, The Beguiled, season two of Top of the Lake and a special screening How to Talk to Girls at Parties.

In her video message she said she was “absolutely devastated” to miss the show.

Jury member Will Smith made the best of the situation, pretending to be Kidman.

He fake-cried and said in halting French, “merci beaucoup mesdames et messieurs.”

Palme d’Or winner Ostlund exclaimed “Oh my god! OK,” after he bounded onto the stage to collect the prestigious award.

Coppola won best director for The Beguiled, her remake of Don Siegel’s 1971 Civil War drama. The first – and until now only – female winner of the prize was Soviet director Yuliya Ippolitovna Solntseva in 1961.

Dominic West, Elisabeth Moss and Claes Bang star in The Square. Bang plays the curator of an art museum, who sets up The Square, an installation inviting passers-by to acts of altruism. But after he reacts foolishly to the theft of his phone, the respected father of two finds himself dragged into shameful situations.

Diane Kruger was named best actress and Joaquin Phoenix best actor.

Kruger was honoured for her performance in Fatih Akin’s In the Fade. In the drama, she played a German woman whose son and Turkish husband are killed in a bomb attack.

“I’m overcome,” Kruger said. “Thank you a thousand times.”

Phoenix was recognised for his role in Lynne Ramsay’s thriller You Were Never Really Here, in which he played a tormented war veteran trying to save a teenage girl from a sex trafficking ring.

The actor wore sneakers on stage as he collected the prize. He said his leather shoes had been flown ahead of him.

He apologised for his appearance, saying the prize was “totally unexpected.”

Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar presided over the competition jury.

The French AIDS drama 120 Beats Per Minute won the Grand Prize from the jury. The award recognises a strong film that missed out on the top prize, the Palme d’Or.

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