Only 7 of the 22 films in the main competition in Cannes this year are directed by women. Too few, believes the Australian megastar, who in 2017 made a pledge to work with a female filmmaker at least once every 18 months.
Now she is at the film festival to receive the Women in motion award and tells that she has worked with 27 female directors since the promise eight years ago. The options have, however, been limited since the number of female-led projects among the most profitable films is "incredibly low".
You should think: Okay, could a woman direct this? But there are simply not enough names to choose from, she says.
At the same time, Kidman pours praise over the critic favorite Mascha Schilinski's "The sound of falling", a German-language drama about intergenerational trauma among women on a farm.
That "The sound of falling" takes place on the world stage is fantastic, she says.
