Venice, Italy - One of Hollywood's biggest stars who is never afraid to push herself, Nicole Kidman ventured even further from her comfort zone with the erotic thriller Babygirl, which saw her named best actress at the 2024 Venice Film Festival on Saturday.

A queen of the silver screen since the 1990s, the Oscar-winning Australian admitted to nerves when the no-holds-barred film from Dutch director Halina Reijn premiered in the Italian watery city last week.

Kidman (57) played Romy, a married, high-powered New York CEO who embarks on a torrid, sadomasochistic affair with a new company intern.

Kidman had delved into the genre in 1999 with her then-husband Tom Cruise in Stanley Kubrick's final film, Eyes Wide Shut, a similarly in-depth look at sexuality and the human psyche.

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But she admitted her latest film left her "exposed and vulnerable and frightened... when it's given to the world."

Unfortunately, she was not in Venice to accept her award, after arriving in the Italian city to hear that her "beautiful, brave mother" Janelle had died.

"I'm in shock, and I have to go to my family. But this award is for her. She shaped me, she guided me, and she made me," Kidman said in a statement read out by Reijn.

Kidman has also won an Academy Award in 2003 for her transformation into writer Virginia Woolf in The Hours.