Michelle Yeoh To Be Lauded With Inaugural TIFF Share Her Journey Groundbreaker Award

The Oscar race came into sharper focus at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, with actors like Brendan Fraser and Michelle Yeoh cementing their lead contender status, and big-budget studio efforts like The Fablemans and Glass Onion premiering to raves.

“Concrete Valley” opens with a man wandering in the woods around Thorncliffe Park, one of Toronto’s first postwar high-rise neighborhoods and one of its most diverse areas. He’s Rashid (Hussam Douhna), a Syrian doctor who recently relocated to Canada with his family.

A legendary moment! Brendan Fraser and Michelle Yeoh reunited fourteen years after costarring in The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor — and it was for a very special occasion.

Fourteen years after they last appeared together onscreen, former co-stars Brendan Fraser and Michelle Yeoh reunited at TIFF.

The Toronto Film Festival ushered in the fall awards season on Sunday evening with the first in-person edition of its Tribute Awards in three years at the city’s historic Fairmount Royal York Hotel.

Michelle Yeoh is a mythological goddess in the new Disney+ series American Born Chinese. Based on the genre-hopping graphic novel by Gene Luen Yang, Disney unveiled a featurette of the new series during the D23 Expo.

Clayton Davis Don’t ever say Viola Davis can’t do something because she’ll continue to prove you wrong. At 56, an action star is another notch on the belt of the esteemed actress that’s won a Tony, Emmy and Oscar. Her achievement in Gina Prince-Bythewood’s resounding epic “The Woman King,” along with the sensational ensemble, is among the highlights of the Toronto Film Festival when it premiered on Friday night. It feels like the “Gladiator” for Black women and what a welcomed surprise. With the right messaging and awards campaign from Sony Pictures, the film can be among the many consumer-friendly titles in the hunt for Oscar attention.

“The Swimmers” is inspired by the true story of teenage Olympic athlete and Syrian refugee Yusra Mardini who, in 2015, along with her sister Sara and two others, dragged a boat full of fellow refugees across the Aegean sea. After the girls made it to Germany, Yusra was selected along with ten others to compete with the Refugee Olympic Team at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio.

Manori Ravindran International Editor The Toronto International Film Festival kicked off on a historic day with one of its strongest opening films in years in Sally El Hosaini’s “The Swimmers,” but what some audience members will likely remember is the stressful experience of getting to Roy Thomson Hall in the first place. TIFF, which has gone digital this year via Ticketmaster, has been plagued with ticketing issues all week thanks to a complicated voucher process for public tickets. While it was hoped that many of the technical kinks would be ironed out by opening night, this wasn’t the case. Media outlets, including Variety, that received opening night tickets from the film’s studio — in this case, Netflix — didn’t receive their tickets in time for the screening due to “technical glitches” and had to be rounded up and escorted to their seats by representatives for the streamer.

Alissa Simon Film Critic This fall, Arab filmmakers will be out in force at such prestigious international fests as Venice and Toronto. Venice alone boasts six features from first- and second-time Arab directors in its official sections, plus an additional six works-in-progress at its Final Cut Production Bridge. Meanwhile, Toronto opens with “The Swimmers,” a drama from U.K. helmer Sally El Hosaini based on the journey of Syrian sisters and Olympic hopefuls Yusra and Sara Mardini, who fled the war in their home country for Germany. Yusra competed in the 2016 and 2021 Summer Olympics. An additional six Arab films will screen at the Canadian fest. Dek: Arab filmmakers embrace genres and issues as festivals and distributors take notice

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Michelle Yeoh will receive the Toronto International Film Festival’s inaugural Share Her Journey Groundbreaker Award. The TIFF Share Her Journey Groundbreaker Award recognizes a woman who is a leader in the film industry and has made a positive impact for women throughout their career. The award, sponsored by Bulgari, will be presented at an in-person gala fundraiser on Sunday, Sept. 11 at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel. “Michelle Yeoh is the definition of groundbreaking,” said Cameron Bailey, TIFF CEO. “Her screen work has spanned continents, genres and decades. This year she delivered a performance in ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ that shows her limitless abilities.”

The Toronto International Film Festival will honor composer Hildur Guðnadóttir and writer-director Sally El Hosaini at this year’s TIFF Tribute Awards. Guðnadóttir, who has received a BAFTA, Grammy and Emmy award for her score for HBO’s “Chernobyl” along with an Oscar for “Joker,” will receive TIFF’s Variety Artisan Award, the festival said Thursday.

Brendan Fraser will receive the TIFF Tribute Award for Performance for his role in A24’s upcoming film “The Whale.”TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey announced the news.  “Brendan Fraser gives a performance of staggering depth, power and nuance in ‘The Whale,’” Bailey said. “This former Torontonian has been an action star, a screen comic and a romantic lead.

Michelle Yeoh is revealing the reason that she wasn’t cast in Quentin Tarantino‘s Kill Bill.

Lea Michele is Broadway bound, and a new video features our first look at the “Glee” alum as Fanny Brice in “Funny Girl”.

Quentin Tarantino and Michelle Yeoh have a friendship that goes back decades. Tarantino has been outspoken in the past about his support for Yeoh and even credited her performance in the 1992 "Police Story 3" as being an influence in Uma Thurman’s character The Bride in "Kill Bill." Since Yeoh knew she was an inspiration for the film, she confronted Tarantino on why she was not cast in the 2003 classic. Michelle Yeoh, left, revealed why she was not cast alongside Uma Thurman in "Kill Bill." (Getty Images) "I asked Quentin the same question," Yeoh said in an interview with Town & Country.

As a self-proclaimed Michelle Yeoh super-fan, it’d make sense that Quentin Tarantino would want the actress in his “Kill Bill” films, right? After all, Tarantino cites Yeoh’s performance in Jackie Chan‘s 1992 action comedy “Police Story 3” as one of the main influences behind Uma Thurman‘s The Bride.

Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill, after asking the director herself.According to Tarantino, the 1992 action film Supercop, starring Yeoh and Jackie Chan, was a source of inspiration for Uma Thurman during filming on the 2003 martial arts film.The director also encouraged Yeoh to come out of retirement after she suffered an on-set injury filming 1996’s The Stunt Woman. “I must say, Quentin, he’s persistent,” Yeoh told Town & Country.

Michelle Yeoh has had some frightening moments in her career.