In Oscar terms, we’ve lived through an entire season in about a week – at least as far as the race for Best Actress goes.

Between the film festivals in Venice, Telluride and Toronto, what once seemed like a formless and broad field of leading actresses has suddenly come into exciting focus. Nicole Kidman‘s thrilling but bittersweet victory at the Volpi Cup in Venice tonight. Her performance in Babygirl, Halina Reijn‘s acclaimed erotic drama is one of the best of her film career – fearless, vulnerable and slyly funny at the same time. However, she was unable to accept the award in person as she received tragic personal news after returning to Venice for the closing ceremony.

“Today I arrived in Venice to learn that my beautiful, brave mother Janelle Ann Kidman has just passed away,” Kidman wrote in a statement read by Reijn as he accepted the award on her behalf. “I am in shock and must go to my family, but this award is for her. She shaped me, she guided me and she made me. I am eternally grateful that through Helena I can say her name to all of you. The collision of art and life is heartbreaking and my heart is broken.”

Although Kidman is stepping away from the public eye to be with her family, she will remain in the minds of many voters as the campaign continues. Let’s start with Telluride, where several potential candidates cemented their status as major candidates. There were Saoirse Ronan‘S The Outrunwhich did quite well at Sundance, and first place Mikey Madison (Anora) And Karla Sofia Gascon (Emilia Perez), who had just premiered their award-winning films at Cannes. The Colorado mountains offered a second wave of screenings for each film, and both films were truly spectacular – just as good, if not better, than the world premieres on location. Ronan was also honored with a Tribute Medallion, Telluride’s highest award for actors, while I’ve heard of hundreds who were turned away, Anora And Emilia Due to demand, no screenings took place. Those who found a seat were extremely enthusiastic about the films and performances.

Over in Venice, behind Kidman’s Babygirl, Angelina Jolie‘s brilliant performance Mary launched. While the film divided critics, her work at the center is undeniable, and the emotional biopic received a warmer reception overall in Telluride. With the Oscar winner out and about in Colorado, she is clearly putting her power behind this film and is not to be underestimated – especially with Netflix backing her campaign. (They have recently received nominations in the category for Annette Bening And Ana de Armas, whose films also received mixed reviews.) Here in Toronto I just saw another premiere in Venice, Walter Sallesis great I’m still here, Where Fernanda Torres is simply transcendent as Brazilian human rights activist Eunice Paiva. Sony Classics is supervising this film, The OutrunAnd The room next door—with a beautiful Julianne Moore They are in the lead – so they have their work cut out for them. But any discussion of this race without Torres is, in my opinion, incomplete – and deserves serious consideration in an era of globalization of the academy.

On Friday evening, Toronto presented two interesting, if lesser-known names. Opposite them were Michael Leigh‘S Hard truths And John Crowley‘S We live in time offer diametrically opposed experiences – the former a prickly, intimate, uncompromising character study and the latter a classically packaged tearjerker. But in the former, Marianne Jean-Baptiste is sensational, the reunion with the director of the film that earned her an Oscar nomination, Secrets and lies. Their role here is even more complex, if somewhat less accessible. We live in timecertainly does not have this problem – who would not want to cry when Florence Pugh And Andrew Garfieldtragic love story? But while Pugh delivers another great, heartbreaking performance of a young woman facing the end of her life, A24 needs to work to position the film so that voters see it as more than just a run-of-the-mill sappy flick.