Actress Michelle Yeoh is set to receive the 15th annual Kirk Douglas Award for Excellence in Film from the Santa Barbara Film Festival. The award, which benefits the festival’s year-round educational programs, will be presented to the Everything Everywhere All At Once star at a black-tie dinner taking place at the Ritz-Carlton Bacara, Santa Barbara on Friday, December 9. This will mark the first time the honor is awarded since the passing of the screen legend that gives the prize its name.
“A well-deserved honor for the legendary and multi-talented Michelle Yeoh,” said the late Kirk Douglas’ son, actor Michael Douglas. “She has been entertaining and thrilling us in films since the 1980s …… AND she does her own stunts!! Bravo Michelle!”
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Yeoh is an internationally recognized, Malaysian-born actress who rose to fame in 1990s Hong Kong action films before going on to shatter convention and star in a myriad of globally acclaimed blockbusters. She most recently starred in Daniels’ critically acclaimed mind bender Everything Everywhere All at Once, which has gone on to become A24’s highest grossing film worldwide, following its March release.
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Yeoh has appeared in more than 70 films and television series in total, boasting such big-screen credits as Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Rob Marshall’s Memoirs of a Geisha, Roger Spottiswoode’s James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies, Danny Boyle’s Sunshine and Jon M. 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.
In television, Yeoh was most recently seen as Emperor Philippa Georgiou on CBS’ Star Trek: Discovery. Next, she will be reuniting with Cretton for the Disney+ series American Born Chinese and starring in Netflix’s upcoming limited series, The Witcher: Blood Origin. Other upcoming projects include James Cameron’s Avatar sequels and Paul Feig’s The School for Good and Evil.
The 38th Santa Barbara Film Festival will take place live and in-person from February 8-18, 2023, with the film lineup and schedule being announced in January. Passes for the fest can be purchased now by clicking here.