Michelle Yeoh Honored with Kirk Douglas Award
Michelle Yeoh - Santa Barbara International Film Festival
The Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) honored Michelle Yeoh with this year's annual Kirk Douglas Excellence in Film Award on Friday, December 10, 2022, recognizing the actress's trailblazing career in cinema. Michelle Yeoh currently stars as A24's action heroine in Everything Everywhere All At Once. It was the first time the award has been given since the death of actor Kirk Douglas. President of the Academy Janet Yang and Directors Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert joined Yeoh to celebrate her achievement. Before being presented with the award, the committee behind SBIFF put together a montage video celebrating the work Michelle Yeoh has done in her career.
Members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences were in the audience when Yeoh presented her acceptance speech at the Ritz-Carlton Bacara. Yeoh thanked the audience for attending and praised Michael Douglas, the Kirk Douglas Award selection committee, and SBIFF director Roger Durling. During her speech, Yeoh stressed one of her favorite quotes from Kirk Douglas: "You must be brave enough to fail." She believed this adage also applied to her profession as a stuntwoman for action movies shot in Hong Kong and in the 1997 James Bond blockbuster Tomorrow Never Dies. She fervently thinks that fear of failure shouldn't prevent others from pursuing their aspirations because failure is a part of life.
Yeoh continued, "If there is one thing in life that is certain, it is that nothing is certain." She then shared the knowledge she had accumulated over the years. She mentioned how the position in the film industry, in which she now works, would have been unimaginable when she started decades ago, suggesting that the entertainment sector may be turning a corner in terms of breaking through the glass ceiling. Yeoh said she was fortunate and privileged to still be an actor at a time when women's voices and abilities are stronger and more pronounced than before. She also spoke about the importance of representation in film, highlighting how important and enlightening it is to finally see a variety of ethnicities, geographical places, personal histories, and abilities. "I am really glad that maybe, just maybe, I played some tiny part in all of that."
Yeoh ended her speech by thanking her Everything Everywhere All at Once collaborators for the role of Evelyn and everyone who turned out for the Kirk Douglas Award ceremony. In an emotional closing, Yeoh states, “you have made me stand just a little bit taller and a little bit prouder of what I have tried to accomplish.”