Uploaded September 2023 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
In 2023 Michelle Yeoh made history becoming the first Asian actress to win an Academy Award for Best Actor for her dimension-breaking turn as misunderstood mum Evelyn Wang in Everything Everywhere All At Once. Yet for international cinema lovers and fans of martial arts films Michelle Yeoh has been making and breaking history for more than 30 years. Getting her start as a beauty queen she transitioned to acting in her 20s but her breakthrough came in the 90s when she starred alongside Jackie Chan in Supercop. Already renowned at the time for performing her own stunts and a unique physical grace on screen, the action film platformed her abilities on a blockbuster scale and the Hollywood roles soon came after including that of formidable Bond girl in Tomorrow Never Dies and Ang Lee's Oscar-winning Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon which announced her as a mainstream star.
This video essay was produced for ACMI's Goddess: Power, Glamour, Rebellion exhibition.
https://www.acmi.net.au/whats-on/goddess/
_____________________
Let's talk about the future of screen culture.
ACMI is Australia’s only national museum of film, TV, videogames, digital culture and art. Every donation, large or small, helps us inspire the next generation of storytellers, coders, makers, watchers and players.
DONATE: https://tickets.acmi.net.au/donate/i/23
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In 2023 Michelle Yeoh made history becoming the first Asian actress to win an Academy Award for Best Actor for her dimension-breaking turn as misunderstood mum Evelyn Wang in Everything Everywhere All At Once. Yet for international cinema lovers and fans of martial arts films Michelle Yeoh has been making and breaking history for more than 30 years. Getting her start as a beauty queen she transitioned to acting in her 20s but her breakthrough came in the 90s when she starred alongside Jackie Chan in Supercop. Already renowned at the time for performing her own stunts and a unique physical grace on screen, the action film platformed her abilities on a blockbuster scale and the Hollywood roles soon came after including that of formidable Bond girl in Tomorrow Never Dies and Ang Lee's Oscar-winning Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon which announced her as a mainstream star.
This video essay was produced for ACMI's Goddess: Power, Glamour, Rebellion exhibition.
https://www.acmi.net.au/whats-on/goddess/
_____________________
Let's talk about the future of screen culture.
ACMI is Australia’s only national museum of film, TV, videogames, digital culture and art. Every donation, large or small, helps us inspire the next generation of storytellers, coders, makers, watchers and players.
DONATE: https://tickets.acmi.net.au/donate/i/23
Follow us
Facebook: facebook.com/acmionline
Instagram: instagram.com/acmionline
Twitter: twitter.com/ACMI
www.acmi.net.au
![Frozen director Jennifer Lee [FULL TALK] | Disney: The Magic of Animation](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/oxHIVP7osH0/mqdefault.jpg "Frozen director Jennifer Lee [FULL TALK] | Disney: The Magic of Animation
Hear from one of the top minds working in animation today.
Chief Creative Officer of@disneyanimation, Jennifer Lee – best known as the writer and director of the beloved Frozen films – speaks with ACMI Assistant Film Curator Maria Lewis. Go behind the doors of the Walt Disney Animation Studios with Lee as she talks about her career to date, including her inspiration and her experience at Disney.
About Jennifer Lee
Jennifer Lee is the Chief Creative Officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios (WDAS) and is the writer/director of Frozen 2 (2019) and Frozen (2013), the top two highest-grossing animated features ever released.
As Chief Creative Officer, Lee has creative oversight of all films, series, shorts and associated projects from Walt Disney Animation Studios. Lee is executive producer for the critically-acclaimed feature Raya and the Last Dragon and the upcoming November 2021 feature Encanto, in addition to the upcoming Disney+ projects Baymax, Zootopia+, and Iwáju, among others.
Directing the Frozen features with Chris Buck, Lee became the highest-grossing female director of a feature with more than $1.45 billion and $1.27 billion in global box office for Frozen 2 and Frozen, respectively. Frozen 2 received the Humanitas Prize for Feature Film, Family and the Kids’ Choice Award for Animated film, two Annie Awards and a Visual Effects Society Award. Frozen received multiple honours, including two Academy Awards®, the Golden Globe®, BAFTA® Award, PGA Award, five Annie Awards and two GRAMMY® Awards. She can be seen in her CCO role and as writer/director of Frozen 2 in the critically-acclaimed 6-episode series, Into the Unknown: Making Frozen 2 on Disney+.
Lee’s career with Walt Disney Animation Studios began March 2011, when she became the co-writer of 2012’s Oscar®-nominated, arcade-hopping adventure Wreck-It Ralph. For their screenplay, she and Phil Johnston received an Annie Award. She then penned the screenplay for Frozen and went on to direct the film (with Buck). In 2014, for her work on Frozen, Lee was given Women In Film’s Dorothy Arzner Directors Award at the Crystal + Lucy Awards. That same year, she gave a memorable commencement speech at her undergraduate alma mater, University of New Hampshire, and was awarded an honorary doctorate degree.
In 2016, Lee was one of the writers of the story for the Academy Award-winning feature, Zootopia.
Lee was one of the executive producers of 2018’s Oscar-nominated feature Ralph Breaks the Internet. She also wrote the book for Frozen: the Broadway Musical, for which she received a Tony® Award nomination in 2018, as well as adapted the screenplay for the live action feature, A Wrinkle In Time that same year.
Before joining Walt Disney Animation Studios, Lee built a career in book publishing before she pursued screenwriting, entering Columbia University’s graduate Film program in 2001. There she received the William Goldman Award for excellence in screenwriting, and her first feature-length script Hinged on Stars won the Columbia University Film Festival. She graduated in 2005 with an MFA in film.
Lee lives in Los Angeles, California, with her family.
#Frozen #Disney #JenniferLee
Learn more about Disney: The Magic of Animation (13 May – 23 Jan 2021) at ACMI:
https://www.acmi.net.au/whats-on/disney-the-magic-of-animation-exhibition/")
