It’s Oscar Night on Sunday, and – as if I need to remind you – Nic is nominated! To (start to) celebrate that, we’re taking a look back at Nicole’s history with the Academy Awards, remembering all the occasions she attended the awards, and that one special night in March 2003! While the Academy seem to prefer to invite, rather than nominate, her, there’s no question she is still Oscar royalty, and a highlight when seen on the red carpet and the stage!
Read through our specially-written retrospective below, and then feel free to post a comment with any and all of your Oscar-related Nicole thoughts! What do you hope she wears on Sunday? Which of her previous Oscar looks is your favourite? Share your congratulations for her nomination. You know the drill!
1990
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Nicole’s very first Oscars was in 1990, when she attended with her new boyfriend Tom Cruise. Tom was nominated for Best Actor for Born on the Fourth of July, although the award went to Daniel Day Lewis for My Left Foot (Nicole later worked with Daniel in Nine (2009). Nic wore a little black Valentino dress with long sleeves, silver shoes and her hair was left big and curly! In 2011 she said of the experience:
“He was nominated. And I remember I got to wear this really short little Valentino velvet dress and I just was like absolutely stunned. It was like the biggest thing I had ever seen. I couldn’t believe how loud the photographers were.”
“I suppose I remember going to the Academy Awards with Tom [Cruise] when I was about 23 or something and that was like, completely overwhelming … but fun!”
In 2008 Nicole admitted she felt uncomfortable and undeserving at being at the Oscars in the early years:
I felt I became a star only by association. I didn’t think [the early movies [hers]] were very good, which is why I would always cower in the background. I thought, I don’t deserve to be here. We would go to the Oscars and I would think, I’m here to support him. I felt it was my job to put on a beautiful dress and be seen and not heard.
1991
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Nicole attended the Oscars the next year too, though this time she was a newlywed! Tom and Nicole had married just over 3 months before the ceremony. Tom was a presenter at these Oscars. Nicole again wore a little black dress with embellishment, and her curly hair was down.
Trivia moment: Nicole’s friend and The Hours co-star, Meryl Streep, was nominated this year for Best Actress for Postcards from the Edge.
1994
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Nicole started to come into her own at the 1994 Oscars, as she and Christian Slater were invited to present the Documentary Awards (Best Documentary Feature and Best Documentary Short). Nicole looked dazzling in a floor length black Valentino gown, with embellishment on the chest. Her trademark curly hair was still present, but looked more styled. While a simple look, this is probably one of Nicole’s early fashion hits!
Trivia moment: Nicole’s good friend and early mentor, Jane Campion, was nominated for Best Director for The Piano. And Practical Magic‘s Aunt Frances, Stockard Channing, was nominated for Best Actress for Six Degrees of Separation.
1996
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Riding high on the success of To Die For (although, criminally, not nominated for her incredible performance – a snub that is still hard to understand!), Nicole attended her 4th Academy Awards this year, with her husband. Nicole presented a film clip of Babe, which was nominated for Best Picture. Nicole stood out on the red carpet in a baby blue dress from Prada.
Trivia moment: 4 of Nicole’s (future) co-stars were up for gold this year – Meryl Streep, Sean Penn, Ed Harris and Anthony Hopkins.
1997
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1997, a seminal moment in the history of Nicole Kidman style! She wow-ed the red carpet in a stunning chartreuse embroidered gown by John Galliano for Dior. Nicole had never been so daring on the red carpet, and she pulled off the look effortlessly, instantly moving her (and Galliano himself) up the fashion ladder. Elizabeth Snead for the LA Times explained the importance of the look:
Many Oscar fashion historians say Kidman’s true Style Icon status was secured in 1997 when she bravely wore a unique chartreuse-hued (dubbed absinthe in fashionese) Asian-inspired embroidered Dior couture gown by a young British designer named John Galliano. Kidman had selected the design and color after a special show Galliano held in Paris, a short flight from the London location of the controversial “Eyes Wide Shut,” starring Kidman and Cruise as a troubled couple.
Stylist L’Wren Scott, who was working with the film’s costume designer, Marit Allen, hooked Kidman up with Indian gold earrings from Martin Katz and a pair of 3-inch Manolo Blahnik pumps, purposely picked so the 5-foot-10-inch tall actress would not tower (too much) over Cruise. The effect of her chartreuse gown is credited with energizing the then-stuffy notion of couture, now a staple of the awards season for all young actresses. And Kidman’s choice also gave Galliano, the enfant terrible of the fashion world, instant Hollywood credibility. (Her main critic that year was Joan Rivers, who snarked on-air, “What an ugly dress!”)
Unfairly snubbed for a nomination again (Portrait Of A Lady was eligible), Nicole supported her husband who did receive a nomination, for Best Actor for Jerry Maguire. Portrait did receive nominations for Best Supporting Actress for Barbara Hershey (who this year, 2011, stars in the acclaimed Black Swan) and Costume Design for Janet Patterson. Nicole was again asked to present an award, this time for Best Film Editing.
Trivia moment: Anthony Minghella, who Nicole later worked with on Cold Mountain (as well as a couple of other films of hers that he produced/wrote) and become close friends with, won Best Director for The English Patient.
Trivia moment #2: Nic took her parents to the awards.
2000
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Another fashion wow moment came in 2000, with Nicole again opting for Dior. She looked stunning a long gold gown by the British designer, with matching fingerless lace gloves. Although their 1999 film Eyes Wide Shut did not receive any nominations (many felt Nicole deserved a Best Supporting Actress nod), Tom was again nominated, this time for Best Supporting Actor for Magnolia. This was to be their last appearance at the Oscars together before they split just under a year later.
Trivia moment: Russell Crowe and Sean Penn were nominated for Best Actor, The Hours ladies Julianne Moore and Meryl Streep for Best Actress.
2002
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Nominated: Best Actress – Moulin Rouge
If the 90′s were the decade of Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman the mega-star Hollywood couple, the 00′s were the decade of Nicole Kidman the Hollywood – and red carpet – royalty. She was a different women when she attended the awards in 2002, basking in the glow of her first Oscar nomination for Best Actress, for Moulin Rouge. Accompanied by her sister, Nicole book-ended the Moulin Rouge press extraordinaire with Antonia, saying “She came with me to Cannes which is where we first took Moulin Rouge, so it’ll be nice.” Nicole said she was “a bit overwhelmed by all of this”, but was “thrilled” to be nominated because Moulin Rouge was a “labour of love” for the entire cast and crew.
Although she didn’t win the award (that went to Halle Berry for Monster’s Ball), Nicole’s performance as Satine has become an iconic character in cinema.
‘Diamonds are a girls best friend’, Satine sang in the film, and on Oscar night the same could be said for Nicole! Accessorising her powder-y pink Chanel gown was a $4-million, 241-carat raw-diamond Bulgari necklace that Nic herself had helped to design. Nicole chose the dress because she “wanted something that was light and airy. I didn’t want to wear black again.”
Trivia moment: Nicole’s good friend Russell Crowe won Best Actor for Gladiator. Jim Broadbent won Best Supporting Actor for Iris, but also mentioned the other big film he was in in 2001 – Moulin Rouge!
2003
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Won: Best Actress – The Hours
What can we say about 2003. Nicole received her 2nd Oscar nomination this year, for her raw and moving performance in The Hours, and beat out Julianne Moore (Far From Heaven), Diane Lane (Unfaithful), Salma Hayek (Frida) and Renee Zellweger (Chicago) to take the gold. She took to the stage and emotionally accepted her award, thanking those involved in the movie and her agents, stating her belief in the importance of the arts, and, in her typically modest and completely-unaware-of-her-own-talent way, said she wanted to make her mother and daughter proud.
“Thank you so much. Yes. Now I have to think. David Hare, I need your words. I have such appreciation and gratitude for this. Russell Crowe said, “Don’t cry if you get up there.” And now I’m crying. Sorry. Stephen Daldry, you took a huge chance on me. I am so grateful. David Hare, you gave me magnificent words to say. Scott Rudin, you fought so hard for this film to get it made. Paramount and Miramax, you made it. And Kevin Huvane, Rick Nicita, Marc Epstein stood by me for so many years. And I am just absolutely thrilled to be standing up here tonight. I do have to say, it was “Why do you come to the Academy Awards when the world is in such turmoil?” Because art is important. And because you believe in what you do. And you want to honor that. And it is a tradition that needs to be upheld. At the same time you say there is a lot of problems in the world and since 9/11 there’s been a lot of pain, in terms of families losing people, and now with the war, families losing people. And God bless them. And I am standing here in front of my mother and my daughter and my whole life I’ve wanted to make my mother proud. And now I want to make my daughter proud. So thank you.”
While it was a very moving and eloquent speech, Nicole said it wasn’t what she planned! “I just went blank. Everything I had thought in my head that I might say was gone. Gone. I couldn’t think of anyone’s names. Nothing. It was terrifying, and my hands started to shake,” she admitted after.
Nicole’s poignant mention of the war was a theme that was in everyone’s minds of the night. The Oscars ceremony was scaled back just a few days before it took place because of the impending announcement of war in Iraq. The tone was muted, there were no press allowed on the red carpet, and attendees dress more somberly than they would normally have done. Nicole herself noted she wore black as a mark of respect. Her sheer black, 3 strapped dress was by Jean-Paul Gaultier.
On a more personal note for Nicole herself, she was obviously overjoyed to win the most important accolade, but years later she admitted she was not happy in her personal life at the time. She said she and her parents and daughter, who all attended the ceremony with her, went back to her hotel after the event and drank champagne together, but she felt lonely and sad that she didn’t have that special someone to share it with. But she also said that she found it comforting to receive the award then, because even if things weren’t going right in her personal life at least she was doing something right in her professional life.
2004
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The pressure was off Nicole at the Oscars in 2004 as she wasn’t nominated. As last year’s Best Actress winner, she presented the Best Actor award which went to Sean Penn for Mystic River – incidentally, Nicole and Sean started work together in The Interpreter the day after, and Nicole acknowledged that it was nice to give him the award then go to work with him the next day.
As Sofia Coppola was being swept away from the stage after winning best original screenplay for “Lost in Translation,” presenter Susan Sarandon hurried after her, yelling, “Sofia! Sofia!”
Coppola stopped and Sarandon stuffed the envelope containing her name into her hand. “Keep this,” said Sarandon, a former Oscar winner. “You’ll want to frame that.”
Nicole Kidman, who presented the lead actor award to Sean Penn for “Mystic River,” did the same favor for him.
“Sean! Sean!” shouted Kidman, also a previous Oscar winner. “Take that.”
She slipped the envelope into his hand and he thanked her with a kiss on the cheek.
One of Nicole’s 2003 film releases Cold Mountain was nominated for several awards on the night, although sadly Nicole was not so lucky in that respect this year. Jude Law and Renee Zellweger were nominated for Best Actor and Supporting Actress, and Renee took home the statue for her role as Ruby. Nic and Renee were interviewed having a girly chat on the front row before the show started, and they had clearly become good friends since filming the movie together.
Fashion wise, Nic looked stunning in a pearl blue dress by Chanel, with a Bulgari diamond necklace and a Chanel clutch with the initials NK replacing the usual CC. Her blonde hair was put into a loose up-do. She attended the event with one of closest friends, Rebecca Rigg, and the two had a lot to celebrate with their other BFF Naomi Watts, who was nominated for 21 Grams!
It wasn’t a big night for Nic though – she attended an event to honour her charity work the day after, and she told reporters “I was in bed by 12:30. I went to the Vanity Fair party, and then I went home. Today, I was just hanging out with my kids.”
2006
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Now a regular fixture at the Oscars, Nic returned in 2006, where she presented the Best Supporting Actor award. In this year it went to her old The Peacemaker co-star, George Clooney, for Syriana, and the two shared big smiles together on stage.
Nicole wore a white embroidered dress by Balenciaga, and left her blonde hair casually down. It’s hard not to note how bridal her dress seems … and of course she wore a real bridal dress less than 6 months later! Speaking of which, her soon-to-be husband, Keith Urban, didn’t walk the red carpet with her, but the two-some were openly photographed together at the Vanity Fair party!
Trivia moment: More co-star nominations: 2006 was a good year for some To Die For stars – Joaquin Phoenix (Jimmy Emmett) was nominated for his performance in Walk The Line, and Matt Dillon (Larry) for Supporting Actor for Crash. Catherine Keener who co-starred in The Interpreter the year before was nominated for Supporting Actress for Capote.
Trivia moment #2: Rachel Weisz won Best Supporting Actress for The Constant Gardener, a role which Nicole herself turned down. Rachel is currently being listed as the female co-lead in the upcoming The Danish Girl.
2007
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Returning to Oscars red carpet in 2007 again, Nic gave us all a lovely surprise by walking the carpet with her BFF Naomi Watts! The twosome looked stunning in red (Nicole) and yellow (Naomi) dress. They talked to reporters on the red carpet together, and talked about what they like to do with friends on their days off, and they listed having barbeques, cooking and having dinner as top of their list!
Ever ahead of the style times, Nicole wore a striking red Balenciaga dress with a massive bow on the shoulder. Cue much talk about whether the daring look worked or not … although a year later we saw several dresses with big bows on the Oscars red carpet!
Inside the event, she took to the stage with The Golden Compass and The Invasion co-star Daniel Craig to present the award for Best Art Direction, which was one of the first of the night. Now a married woman, Mr Kidman was not far away – he left Nicole and Naomi to the red carpet, but was seen sitting with Nicole during the show, and the couple were photographed at the Vanity Fair Party together.
Snapped on the red carpet with: George Lucas, Abigail Breslin, and Meryl Streep.
2008
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While Nicole sadly missed out on a nomination for what many consider to be one of her finest performances – Margot At The Wedding – Nicole was probably pretty happy when she attended the Oscars in 2008 – she was pregnant! For the first time, Keith walked the red carpet with her, and they looked very happy and very much in love! Nicole went to black with her dress this year, wearing a simple black dress by her then favourite designer, Balenciaga, and wore a stunning and large necklace that was specially designed by her friend L’Wren Scott. We could just about see a tiny baby bump!
This year Nicole was part of one of the most important parts of the Academy Awards ceremony – she presented the Academy Honorary Award, which went to art director Robert Boyle. Boyle was a popular and busy art director and production designer between about 1940 and 1990.
Trivia moment: One of Nicole’s (3) 2007 film releases, The Golden Compass, scored nominations for Best Art Direction and Best Visual Effects, taking home the statue for Visual Effects!
Trivia moment #2: This years co-star nominees: George Clooney (The Peacemaker) for Michael Clayton , Tommy Lee Jones (Batman Forever) for In the Valley of Elah, Viggo Mortensen (Portrait Of A Lady) for Eastern Promises (which co-starred Naomi Watts!), Daniel Day Lewis (Nine) for There Will Be Blood, Marion Cotillard (Nine) for La Vie En Rose, and Casey Affleck (To Die For) for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Daniel Day Lewis and Marion Cotillard won … and they all started filming Nine a few months later.
2009
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Nicole made a surprise appearance at the 2009 Academy Awards, and appeared as part of the Academy’s new format for introducing the Acting categories. The new format had 5 previous winners – most of which were kept a secret – come out on stage for each presentation, and each of them introduced/gave a tribute to one of the nominees. In the Best Actress presentation, Nicole gave a tribute to fellow humanitarian and mum Angelina Jolie, who was nominated for Changeling.
“That this role was played so authentically, is due to the very modern gifts of Angelina Jolie. In Changeling, your search for justice and for the truth, lead with heartbreaking anguish and stead-fast determination, reminded us all of the enduring power of a mother’s love.”
Nicole was a vision on stage, wearing a feathered silver fitted dress, with her hair neatly up in a 20′s style do. Definitely one of our favourite of Nicole’s many Oscar looks!
Trivia moment: 3 of the actresses that appeared with Nicole in the Best Actress presentation were former/future co-stars of Nic – Shirley Maclaine (Bewitched), Sophia Loren (Nine) and Marion Cotillard (Nine).
Trivia moment #2: With Kate Winslet’s win this year for The Reader, it marks the 2nd time Stephen Daldry has directed his lead actress to an Oscar win – the first of which was in 2003, and we all know who won then!
Trivia moment #3: Gus Vant Sant and Stephen Daldry, who directed Nicole to two of her finest performances – To Die For and The Hours, respectively – were both nominated for Best Director. As was Ron Howard, who directed Far & Away. Sean Penn (The Interpreter) added another Oscar to his collection, this time for Milk. Meryl Streep (The Hours) scored another nomination, Nine co-star Penelope Cruz won for Vicky Cristina Barcelona, and Fur co-star Robert Downey Jr was a nominee for Supporting Actor.
2011
We are very proud to say yet again (not that you need reminding!) that Nicole will be attending the Oscars this coming Sunday as a nominee again! She is nominated for Best Actress for her role as Becca in Rabbit Hole, and Nicole has said this is the most “sweet” of her 3 nominations, because of the journey she went on to get it made. She’ll be attending the ceremony with her husband Keith Urban, and will be presenting the award for Best Original Score with her fellow Australian, and Australia co-star, Hugh Jackman.
Of all this years main nominees, Nicole has only worked with two of them – Christian Bale (nominated for Supporting Actor for The Fighter) in Portrait Of A Lady, and Natalie Portman (Best Actress for Black Swan) in Cold Mountain. Both are favourites to win this Sunday! Incidentally, she is rumoured to be working with current Best Actor nominees Colin Firth and James Franco later this year, on (respectively) Stoker and on stage in Sweet Bird Of Youth.
As for what she’ll wear, we just can’t guess! Nicole has favoured Nina Ricci in recent months, wearing her designs to the SAG Awards, Santa Barbara International Film Festival and Critics’ Choice Awards. She reverted back to old favourite (and a very good choice, if you read back through this post) Jean Paul Gaultier for the Grammys most recently. Nicole has said that she has much less interest in fashion these days, and picks dresses very quickly based on convenience. She added at the Oscar Nominees Luncheon that she has a very young stylist – Sunday Rose – who often tells her what to wear, so Nicole warned that she may turn up in a tutu! Nicole has tended to stay on the safe side of fashion recently, but we’re hoping she’ll pull out all the stops for the big Oscar night. Only time will tell… and it’s only 2 days …
Whether she takes home the little gold man or not, we can only list this awards season as a major WIN. Nicole worked incredibly hard to get Rabbit Hole made, and the reception it’s received since it premiered in Toronto less than 6 months ago has been incredible. After all the criticism she’s received in recent years, and the fact that Nicole produced this movie, this reception for Rabbit Hole is particularly sweet, as Nicole herself would say. So, congratulations Nicole, and good luck on Sunday night!
Actress in a Leading Role
* Annette Bening in “The Kids Are All Right”
* Nicole Kidman in “Rabbit Hole”
* Jennifer Lawrence in “Winter’s Bone”
* Natalie Portman in “Black Swan”
* Michelle Williams in “Blue Valentine”
Jess, wasn’t the red dress from 2007 Oscars from Balenciaga? I remembered she worse Balenciaga 3 years in a row for the Oscars.