Michelle Yeoh — the mind-bendingly versatile actress whose most recent critically acclaimed performance was in the 2022 film Everything Everywhere All at Once — will receive the Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s 15th annual Kirk Douglas Award for Excellence in Film on December 9. This award — which benefits SBIFF’s year-round educational programs — is the first of the upcoming film fest honors to be announced, and it also is the first time since the passing of screen legend Kirk Douglas that the honor will be awarded.
“A well-deserved honor for the legendary and multi-talented Michelle Yeoh. She has been entertaining and thrilling us in films since the 1980s … AND she does her own stunts! Bravo, Michelle!” said Michael Douglas, son of the late Kirk Douglas and a well-regarded actor and producer as well.
Yeoh is an internationally recognized Malaysian-born actress who rose to fame in 1990s Hong Kong action films before starring in a myriad of globally acclaimed blockbusters. She has appeared in more than 70 features and television series, with a number of iconic roles, including Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 1 and 2, Rob Marshall’s Memoirs of a Geisha, Roger Spottiswoode’s James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies, Danny Boyle’s Sunshine, and Jon Chu’s Crazy Rich Asians (the highest-grossing romantic comedy in the U.S. in the past 10 years).
After appearing in James Gunn’s second installment of the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise, Yeoh returned to the Marvel universe in Destin Daniel Cretton’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Some of her upcoming credits include James Cameron’s Avatar sequels and Paul Feig’s The School for Good and Evil.
The Santa Barbara International Film Festival has an impressive record of honoring film professionals who later go on to receive Academy Award nominations and other prestigious accolades. Passes for the 2023 festival are now available, and tickets and sponsorship opportunities are also available for the black-tie fundraiser, which takes place at the Ritz-Carlton Bacara on December 9. For more information, visit givebox.com/522858.
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