Nicole Kidman was in the house Thursday as writer-director Halina Reijn’s Babygirl had its world premiere screening at the Venice Film Festival. The A24 erotic thriller garnered a seven-minute-plus ovation from the Sala Grande audience.
Kidman was joined at the premiere by fellow cast members Harris Dickinson, Antonio Banderas and Sophie Wilde, as well as filmmaker Reijn.
After the screening, Reijn and Kidman hugged and chatted as they made their way down from the theater gallery. The woo-hooing only stopped when they were escorted out of the building.
Babygirl centers on Kidman’s high-powered CEO who puts her life’s work on the line when she begins a torrid affair with her much-younger intern. A24 will next take the film to TIFF before releasing the film in the U.S. on Christmas Day.
Watch on Deadline
RELATED: Venice Film Festival 2024: All Of Deadline’s Movie Reviews
Earlier today, Kidman told the Venice press corps that making the movie with Reijn had been a “freeing” experience. She said of the film, it’s “obviously, yes, about sex,” but it’s also about “desire, it’s about your inner thoughts, it’s about secrets, it’s about marriage, it’s about truth, power, consent… This is one woman’s story, and I hope a very liberating story. It’s told by a woman through her gaze… and that’s to me what made it so unique was that suddenly I was going to be in the hands of a woman with this material and it was very deep to share those things and very freeing.”
Reijn agreed, adding, “I was delighted to be able to make a film about feminine desire, but it’s also about an existential crisis, it has many layers.” At the core, she said, the film is “about the question, Can I love myself in all my different layers?” which she hopes will function as “a tribute to self-love and liberation.”
Still, Reijn also noted that women’s relationships with their bodies was “exactly why” she wanted to make this movie, and show that “the huuuuge orgasm gap still exists,” she said, quipping, “Take note, men.”
The post Nicole Kidman’s Erotic Thriller ‘Babygirl’ Gets 7-Minute Ovation At Venice Film Festival Premiere appeared first on Deadline.
