Nicole Kidman laments 'incredibly low' number of women-directed films

CANNES, France — Australian megastar Nicole Kidman lamented Sunday the "incredibly low" number of hit films made by women directors, and revealed that she often wakes up at 3:00 am to do her own personal writing.

Despite her efforts backing and mentoring women-led projects, the number of women-made films among the highest-grossing films "is incredibly low", she said as she received a Kering Women In Motion award at the Cannes film festival.

Kidman pledged in 2017 to work with a woman director at least once every 18 months, saying then that there was "such a disparity in terms of the choices".

"You would go, 'OK, could a woman direct this?' There just wasn't a number of names that you could consider," she said.

The Oscar-winning actor confirmed that she had worked with 27 female directors since her pledge eight years ago.

Only seven of the 22 films in the main competition in Cannes this year are directed by women.

But Kidman heaped praise on an early critics' favourite, Mascha Schilinski's "The Sound of Falling", a German-language drama about multi-generational trauma among women on a farm.

"To have 'Sound of Falling' heard on the world stage, that's fantastic," she said.

Although she ruled out writing her own script, she did reveal that she frequently wakes up during the night to write.

"It's a very ripe time for things to happen because you're in that slightly removed state from reality," she said.

"I wake up and I'll write something, be it a dream, be it something that's circulating in my mind."