Dutch Filmmaker Halina Reijn’s erotic thriller Babygirl, starring Nicole Kidman in a fearless performance, became the talk of the Venice Film Festival.

Babygirl‘s first press screenings in Italy received rapturous applause Friday morning, and the movie’s many sexual moments and thematically subtle message could be overheard sparking animated discussions among festivalgoers up and down the Lido.

The Oscar award chatter around Kidman’s performance has officially begun.

The commercial winning streak for A24, which produced the film and is releasing it in the U.S. on Dec. 25, appears to be secure.

In its deliciously playful provocations, Babygirl explores the tender, the wickedly funny, and the unexpectedly romantic places that a certain kind of repression can lead to, and where someone will go to find release.

Reijin and her cast appeared in Venice for a press conference to jointly discuss the film’s creation for the first time.

“This definitely leaves me exposed and vulnerable and frightened, and all of those things when it’s given to the world,” Kidman said of the experience of debuting the film before audiences. “But making it with these people here, it was delicate and intimate and very deep.”

She added: “Right now we’re all a bit nervous — so I’m like, I hope my hands aren’t shaking — but at the same time, I’m really proud to be at a festival like this, and to be forging ahead with films that are still being made, and particularly with women at the helm.”

Kidman noted: “I think that’s what made it so compelling, was being in the hands of Halina [as my director], because I knew she wasn’t going to exploit me. I mean, however anyone interprets it, I didn’t feel exploited. I felt very much a part of it. It’s the story that I wanted to be a part of, that I wanted to tell, and every part of me was committed to that.”

Kidman acknowledged that she’s worked on many films and series that revolve around sex (Eyes Wide Shut, To Die For, Big Little Lies, to name just a few), but she underscored how Babygirl offered something new.

“I’ve worked with so many directors, I haven’t worked with a woman on this subject matter,” she said in statements ahead of the press screenings. “When you’re talking to a woman director and she’s like, ‘OK, let’s work on this orgasm together’ — I’m saying that bluntly, but you’re not going to say that with a guy. [Halina] was always so loving towards all of us, to Antonio, to Harris, to me, to Sophie, all of us. It was just a very warm environment to work in.”

Reijin made her U.S. debut with the Gen Z slasher satire Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022), also produced by A24.

But Babygirl returns to the more erotic tones of the director’s first feature, the 2019 Dutch drama Instinct, which chronicled an illicit relationship between a prison therapist and an incarcerated sex offender.

Reijn said that Babygirl was explicitly inspired by the sexual thrillers of the 1990s, especially the work of Paul Verhoeven. “I was incredibly inspired by all the sexual thrillers of the ’90s,” she explained. “

Basic Instinct, Fatal Attraction, 9 1/2 Weeks, Indecent Proposal, not only because they entertained me at the time, but also because I felt really seen by them, weirdly, even though they were all directed by men and had a sometimes not-too-friendly view of women.”

Reijin, an actress in the Netherlands before she became a director, has said that performing and working with Verhoeven in a supporting role on his film Black Book, directly fed into her creative process for Babygirl.

“Paul Verhoeven always told me I could only make a movie if I had a specific question,” she explains. “For this story I wondered: Are we animals or are we civilized? Can we make peace with the animal inside us? Is it possible for the different parts of ourselves to coexist and, in turn, for us to love our whole selves without shame?”

Babygirl doesn’t revolve around the punishment of the female protagonist in the way that 1990s erotic thrillers did.

Reijin explained: “I think we all — men, women, all beings have, you know, different sides within themselves, and we all have a beast living inside of ourselves,” Rejin said at the press conference.

“For women, we have not gotten a lot of space yet to explore this behavior, not only how strong we are, but also how weak we are. I was raised by my parents in a way that I don’t believe in good and evil, I think we are all both. And we need to keep shining a light on that, because the moment we suppress it, that’s when it becomes dangerous. That’s why I don’t want any of my characters to be punished. I just want them to be.”

Reijin urged men to take note of “huge” organism gap that exists between men and women, drawing cheers of approval from the crowd.