In honor of her receiving this year’s AFI Life Achievement Award, Nicole Kidman is being celebrated with a career retrospective at Nashville’s non-profit film center, The Belcourt, starting next week. Having undergone extensive renovations and preservations in 2016, The Belcourt is now one of Nashville’s most beloved homes for the arts, attracting audiences from all over Tennessee and the Southeast region, as well as visitors from across the country and globe. The theater programs over 300 films a year across 4,500 screenings, some of which feature Q&As with filmmakers and scholars.
Born in Hawaii, but raised in Australia, Kidman made her feature acting debut at the age of 16 and has been working steadily ever since. During her speech at the AFI ceremony, Kidman said, “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. Thank you for making me better at my craft and giving me a place, however temporary, in this world. Thank you for inviting me into your movie families. Thank you for my childhood dream that became a reality.”
Some of the films featured in the series include 4K restorations of both Gus Van Sant’s “To Die For” and Lars Von Trier’s “Dogville,” as well as 35mm showings of Jonathan Glazer’s “Birth” and Stanley Kubrick’s “Eyes Wide Shut.” All films will be screened twice for the retrospective, starting on June 26 and closing out with fan favorite “Moulin Rouge!” on July 7.
In a statement on its website, The Belcourt said, “Though she is lauded and recognized around the globe, here in Nashville, we count ourselves among Nicole Kidman’s biggest admirers. When she received the prestigious AFI Life Achievement Award this spring, it seemed a very worthwhile occasion for the Belcourt to provide our own celebration of her extraordinary work. And we are overwhelmingly honored that she selected the eight films in the series. While this represents only a portion of her extensive filmography, we believe it covers the distinct and diverse talent of this remarkable artist — and her many gifts to the world of cinema.”
Also featured all month at The Belcourt, an ode to the eclectic year 1999. Films still coming up in that series include “Election,” “Run Lola Run,” “The Blair Witch Project,” “Buena Vista Social Club,” and many others.
The Belcourt said of this programming, “Whether you were first discovering the wonderful world of cinema when your parents let you rent your first R-rated movie from the local video store or you were the parent praying you didn’t have to watch ‘Baby Geniuses’ for the millionth time or you were just lucky enough to get to the theater to see Stanley Kubrick’s final film or a no-budget horror flick about lost documentarians, 1999 was a major touchstone for a lot of us. Y2K was breathing down our collective necks, but theaters were brimming with a veritable treasure trove of work by old masters and exciting new voices. Cher was making us believe in life after love, Britney inexplicably wanted us to hit her (one more time), and TLC was telling us exactly what they thought of scrubs while M. Night was making us see dead people, Morpheus was pushing pills and we were all learning the first and second rules of a cabal of underground pugilists. We’re celebrating that moment 25 years on with a series of 25 films (culled from a list of over 150 deserving candidates) that encapsulate the unique spirit and zeitgeist of the time, from the multiplex to the arthouse. We invite you all to take a trip with us down memory lane as the Belcourt parties like it’s 1999.”
