To attend the Kering Women in Motion Awards in Cannes—one of the most glamorous, starry black-tie dinners at a film festival full of them—is to wonder, at least initially, who’s surrounding you. As I ascended the steps toward the banquet hall, overlooking the Croisette in the city’s hilly old town at Place de la Castre, dozens of cameras started snapping in my face. Surely they could not have been for me—and indeed they were not. It took a few too many seconds for me to realize I was arriving right behind Charli XCX.
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So it goes as the festival’s opening weekend draws to a close—the Grammy-winning pop artist has been a fixture at this year’s Cannes, and before long was mingling with Nicole Kidman, the night’s big honoree. Get a little deeper into the room, and it is instantly stacked with big names. The main competition jury, led by Juliette Binoche and featuring American stars Halle Berry and Jeremy Strong, held much of the attention, as did festival fixtures like Julianne Moore and Isabelle Huppert, recent Cannes prize-winning filmmakers Julia Ducornau and Coralie Fargeat, and other luminaries like Naomi Ackie and Paul Mescal. I saw a few emotional reunions take place: Anora’s Oscar-winning producer Samantha Quan hugged that film’s breakout star, Mark Eydelshteyn, while Patrick Schwarzenegger caught up with his White Lotus costar Charlotte Le Bon.
Alongside Marianna Brennand, director of the terrific Brazilian film Manas who received the Emerging Talent Award, Kidman was recognized on Sunday night for her efforts to increase the prominence of women in cinema. She was introduced by the festival’s longtime General Delegate, Thierry Frémaux, who movingly spoke about Kidman’s decades-long relationship with the festival, highlighting the rousing opening-night screening of Moulin Rouge! nearly 25 years ago—and the raucous party that followed. (“Enough!” Kidman playfully shouted midway through his speech, as he hinted at her wild side.) When Kidman took the stage, she spoke about making good on her commitment to work regularly with female filmmakers—and urged those listening to push harder going forward.
“We need to give women better roles, particularly as they get older, so please write them—we are here and we can prove to you that we will make money for you,” Kidman said in her acceptance speech. She then thanked Kering’s president François-Henri Pinault and his wife, Oscar nominee Salma Hayek, for their support before concluding, “I’m very, very happy that I just get to be an advocate and to get to uphold and continue to be a worker bee, as I call myself, doing the work that’s necessary to change cinema and storytelling, and to keep this world alive and buzzing.”
Given that Kering’s ceremony takes place smack in the middle of the festival, everyone was eager to gossip. My table near the front of the stage included Academy president Janet Yang, European Film Award-winning French actress Clotilde Courau, and several filmmakers; during the cocktail hour that preceded the seated dinner, I chatted with fellow journalists, jury members, and other festival attendees.
Of the favorites so far, the film that came up most often was Nouvelle Vague, Richard Linklater’s homage to the French New Wave that depicts the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless. Americans in the room loved it, but more importantly, so did several French film-industry members whose perspective I wasn’t sure about, given that the movie was made by an American and is awash in sweet reverence. “I loved it,” Courau told me, adding she felt it could serve as a valuable education for younger artists in France. “And I didn’t know Jean Seberg came in [to Breathless] as such a big star. We didn’t all know that.”
There was much anticipation for Julia Ducornau’s Alpha, which is premiering Monday night; one producer told me he fears that some may prematurely have it out for the film, since Ducornau’s previous movie, the body-horror extravaganza Titane, was a controversial Palme d’Or winner. And there was much talk around Jennifer Lawrence’s extraordinary performance in Die, My Love, even as I heard mixed feelings about the movie overall. Several individuals at the event from around the world expressed shock and the size and speed of Mubi’s acquisition of the film, which indicates high awards hopes from the studio.
As to who might be the Palme front-runner so far? I tried polling multiple jury members on their favorites, even off the record, but none would budge an inch. The Cannes competition is serious business—even if the Kering dinner, with its spectacular views and heavy starpower, can make it feel pretty fun too.
This story is part of Awards Insider’s in-depth 2025 Cannes Film Festival coverage, including first looks and exclusive interviews with some of the event’s biggest names. Stay tuned for more Cannes stories as well as a special full week of Little Gold Men podcast episodes, recorded live from the festival and publishing every day.
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The post Nicole Kidman Calls for Change in Cannes: “We Need to Give Women Better Roles…So Please Write Them” appeared first on Vanity Fair.
