Australian of the Year: Nicole Kidman keeps honours rolling

Not since her Oscar-winning year of 2002 has Nicole Kidman enjoyed a year of such popular and critical success.

Nicole Kidman has been nominated for The Australian’s Australian of the Year. Picture: Getty Images

Not since her surprising against-type role as Virginia Woolf in The Hours in 2002 has Nicole Kidman enjoyed a year of such popular and critical success.

In what has been a stellar 12 months for the actress, Kidman helped lead the awards campaign for the Australian film Lion, the heartwarming true story of an Australian boy, Saroo, and his quest to discover his Indian family. Kidman played Saroo’s adoptive mother, Sue Brierley.

While Lion did not succeed at the Oscars — where Kidman was nominated for best supporting ­actress — the film proved to be king of the jungle at last month’s AACTA Awards in Sydney.

Lion triumphed with 12 wins from 12 nominations at the ­AACTAs, including best supporting actress for Kidman.

In a double honour, Kidman also was named best supporting actress in a television series for her role in the crime drama Top of the Lake: China Girl. Earlier last year, Kidman won the best supporting actress honour at the AACTA International Awards in Los Angeles.

The spread of awards coming to Kidman demonstrates her versatility and reach, as well as the resurgence of narrative TV.

2017 Australian of the Year

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Last year, the miniseries Big Little Lies, on which Kidman is a producer, picked up eight Emmy Awards from 16 nominations, ­including outstanding limited ­series.

The popular series, based on the novel by Sydney author Liane Moriarty, is in contention at next week’s Golden Globe Awards. Kidman has been nominated twice: as a producer in the best miniseries category, and as best supporting actress, where she faces co-star and producer Reese Witherspoon, who is nominated in the same category.

Kidman has come a long way since her early work as a spirited young redhead in the teen adventure BMX Bandits, and on the Phillip Noyce thriller Dead Calm. She was recently seen in Yorgos Lanthimos’s psychological drama The Killing of a Sacred Deer and this year makes another unexpected turn as Queen Atlanna in the superhero film Aquaman.

Kidman was recognised in the 2006 Australia Day honours for her work as an actress and for her advocacy for health and humanitarian causes, and is one of The Australian’s Australian of the Year nominees.

Readers are encouraged to make a nomination for Aus­tralian of the Year by filling out the coupon, sending an email, or going to our website.