As she graced the Venice red carpet with husband Brooklyn Beckham on her arm, Nicola Peltz no doubt basked in the spotlight when she accepted her Rising Star award earlier this month.But despite organisers crediting her win to her ‘increasingly multifaceted roles, both in front of and behind the camera’, it seems that the honour could be less merit-based than was once thought.Questions have been raised around whether Nicola’s win was simply a ‘pay to play’ marketing ploy to promote her upcoming indie film Prima.The actress had jetted to Venice to accept the award at the same time its prestigious annual Film Festival was taking place, but in reality her honour was completely separate from the event.The ceremony took place in Venice’s Casa Cinema Giovani, and was conceived by Kinéo Cultural Association president Rosetta Sannelli in 2002. Nicola has been working on her indie drama Prima since January and has been relentlessly promoting it via her social media channels, but the film does not yet have an official release date. Nicola Peltz’s Rising Star honour in Venice could be less merit-based than was once thought, as questions have been raised over whether it was simply a ‘pay to play’ marketing ploy The actress jetted to Venice to accept the award at the same time that its annual Film Festival was taking place, but in reality her honour was completely separate from the eventThe former Transformers star paid tribute to her husband Brooklyn as she accepted her award, with her proud billionaire father, business leader Nelson Peltz, mother Claudia and brother Bradley all watching on. Insight into Nicola’s win was shared by Richard Osman and Marina Hyde on The Rest Is Entertainment podcast, and they shared that the award was conveniently timed to give the illusion that she’d been honoured at the Venice Film Festival itself.Marina said: ‘She actually won the Rising Star Award in Venice in the city, but at a festival that takes place at the same time as the Venice Film Festival, but is not in fact the Venice Film Festival or indeed affiliated with it in any way.’It’s called Kineo. It has no official ties, but if you saw this thing, if you saw the pictures of it, there’s a big big red carpet. ‘She’s in a big old dress. There’s Brooklyn, it looks for all the world as though it’s part of the big Venice Film Festival, which is, you know, one of the huge sort of it’s that and Cannes really.’Kineo said she’s attracted increasing international attention through her work as an actress, screenwriter, and producer. She’s also 31, which is dare I say not the age of a of, in fact she first won a Rising star award at Cinema Con.’Her next film, and this is sort of relevant, is called Prima. It’s about a ballerina. She’s in it. Faye Dunaway is also in it.’It’s been written by Nicola Peltz, directed by others, but funded by, no one knows who it’s funded by. She’s got some kind of production startup, Bunny Films, which I think we can assume could be traced financially back to her father.’She did one other film which she I think even directed, wrote, directed and starred in called Lola in which she played a sort of impoverished stripper.”She’s been acting for almost two decades. So I suppose the question is what has happened here? Nicola’s honour also conveniently came as she wrapped work on her new indie drama Prima, which is yet to have a release date She also appeared alongside her co-star in the film Faye Dunaway, who herself was given a Lifetime Acheivement Award by Kineo (pictured together at the press conference)’There is no short list for this award disclosed…. no vote tally. We don’t even know the process by which the Rising Star award at Kineo, a festival in Venice, but not Venice, happens.’What’s interesting about this award, I mean, you can hear how careful I’m having to be when I’m talking about it, but it’s not tied to a specific performance.’However, at the same festival, Faye Dunaway, who I recently mentioned as starring in this upcoming Nicola Peltz film, she got a Lifetime Achievement Award. ‘So, the Rising Star was given to Nicola and Faye Dunaway got the Lifetime Achievement award. ‘I don’t know quite how to put this. It is certainly helpful marketing for a film that has yet to be released.’Everyone sort of clutching their hankies to their noses is ridiculous because so many awards across entertainment are effectively pay to play.’In Prima, Nicola stars as Margo, a dedicated prima ballerina facing life-altering decisions as modern changes disrupt her ballet company.The actress and her family attended a private Los Angeles screening in May for the movie, hosted by East West Bank CEO Dominic Ng. Afterwards she thanked supporters and said their backing of independent film meant ‘more than I can express’.The film has also been in the spotlight after Nicola sparked concern with her drastic weight loss while preparing for her starring role. Nicola undertook four months of gruelling ballerina training for her role which saw her drop to under 100 pounds (45kg). Her shock weight loss came in a bid to fully embody her ballerina character – for which she committed to a strict diet and intensive training regimen. Nicola’s family, including her billionaire father Nelson who has partly bankrolled her film projects, were watching on as she accepted the award in Venice The actress was supported by her husband Brooklyn Beckham as she accepted the award, which Kineo organisers credited to her ‘increasingly multifaceted roles’Brooklyn jumped to Nicola’s defence and warned ‘don’t ever talk about my wife’ in an online row, after one follower asked: ‘Do you comment on everyone who is concerned about your wife and how sickly she looks? She puts herself out there, feed her.’ Brooklyn replied: ‘Don’t ever talk about my wife. She’s absolutely beautiful and you should never comment on a woman’s body. It’s disgraceful.’ Of course, awards campaigning is far from a secret in Hollywood circles, with stars long known to ‘lobby’ for big nominations with the backing of major studios, and a hefty budget to boot.The ‘pay to play’ method sees bosses organise swanky events and breakfasts to charm awards voters into selecting their clients for top honours.The Academy does have strict rules in place around ‘lobbying’ and awards campaigns, but this hasn’t stopped them being bent in the past.In 2023, organisers were forced to investigate whether rules were violated by an ‘aggressive’ campaign backed by A-listers including Gwyneth Paltrow and Kate Winslet that saw ‘To Leslie’ star Andrea Riseborough snag an Oscar nomination.The film, which follows the story of a west Texas alcoholic mother seeking redemption, only made $27,322 in gross box-office earnings, leading many to believe that not enough awards voters could have seen it for it to be a contender.Viola Davis in The Woman King and Danielle Deadwyler in Till, two actresses of colour who were backed by well-funded campaigns by Sony and MGM/Amazon respectively, did not make the cut despite both being widely predicted to score honours.Nicola accepted her Rising Star award in Venice earlier this month, with the event where she received the honour itself noticeably smaller than the celebratory red carpet she attended hours later.As she accepted her award, she said: ‘Hi everyone. I am normally more comfortable playing a character as an actor than standing in front of an audience, so please bear with me.’Thank you so much for this immense honour. To receive an award at the Venice Film Festival is something I will carry with me for the rest of my career.’She then addressed her Prima co-star Faye, who was given a lifetime achievement by the Kineo organisation at the same ceremony. ‘Faye you have always been an inspiration to me and learning with you has been incredible.’ She went on: ‘My family are my everything. My mum, dad, [brothers] Diesel and Brad and Brooklyn thank you. You always believe in me. To have your support is the reason I can reach to the stars in the first place.’Beginning her career as a child, Nicola started in acting in Deck The Halls with Danny DeVito, in 2006, aged 11, and has also appeared in The Last Airbender and Transformers: The Age Of Extinction.More recently she has been writing and producing films through her label, Bunny Films, which is named after her late grandmother and bankrolled partly by her billionaire father, Nelson. Nicola’s most recent film projects have been through her production company Bunny Films, which is part-funded by her father, but her 2024 directorial debut Lola was panned by critics At the time, Nicola’s effort was supported by her husband Brooklyn and the Beckhams, though the couple’s relations with the family have now soured significantly But her first attempt to launch her career as a director fell flat, when her 2024 film Lola took just under $1,000 at the box office.Critics also blasted the film as ‘a glorified commercial’ for Nicola, and accused the movie of being ‘poverty porn’, meaning the exploitation of poverty for entertainment and artistic recognition. Many viewers said they felt she had failed to grasp even a basic understanding of the world she was attempting to portray. Nicola has also been criticised for unfairly using her elite background to get her pet project made, as she managed to secure the services of 28-time Grammy-winning producer Quincy Jones, the man behind Michael Jackson’s Thriller album, to help with the soundtrack.Quincy’s daughter, Kenya Kinski-Jones, 33, just happens to be dating Nicola’s elder brother Will, 37.Nicola previously revealed the film had been six years in the making, saying: ‘I wrote it when I was 23, and it’s been such a labour of love. I’ve put my heart and soul into it.’Indeed, even the Beckham family had thrown their support behind their daughter-in-law Nicola’s ailing film career, until relations between her and their son Brooklyn were brutally severed in January.Victoria and her husband David previously shared enthusiastic social media posts wearing branded baseball caps with their combined 121 million followers, with the latter gushing that he was ‘so proud’ of his daughter-in-law. The couple also supported Nicola at the film’s premiere, although at the time there were already questions around whether a family feud had begun.Nicola married Brooklyn in April 2022, but in January the chef cut off his family in search of ‘peace’, having explained on Instagram that they had tried to split him up from his wife.