Cannes 2023: Michelle Yeoh receives major honour
The Academy Award-winning actress and producer Michelle Yeoh was honoured as the recipient of the coveted 2023 Women in Motion Award this week at the Cannes Film Festival.
Taking the stage to accept the honour, Yeoh wore a custom Balenciaga Couture black micro-beaded bustier column dress. To match the attire of Salma Hayek Pinault, Isabelle Huppert, and Anok Yai.
Hayek Pinault and Huppert are past honourees of the Women in Motion Award, as are Viola Davis, Jane Fonda, Susan Sarandon, Geena Davis, Patty Jenkins, and Gong Li. The Kering Women in Motion initiative also honours women making a positive impact in other creative areas, such as art, design, photography, music, and choreography.
“Kering and the Cannes Film Festival loudly proclaim, yes, women can have ambition,” Cannes Film Festival president Iris Knobloch said in her opening remarks. “Yes, women can succeed and be proud of their accomplishments. Yes, women deserve the spotlight.”
François-Henri Pinault, the chairman and CEO of Kering and husband of Hayek Pinault, discussed the myriad reasons why Yeoh was selected for this year’s Women in Motion Award.
“She’s one of those international icons to whom people turn to dream bigger,” he said. “She’s one of those heroines who inspire the wildest ambitions. She’s brave and tenacious. She’s passionate and hardworking. She’s strong and sensitive. She’s powerful and independent, and she’s a role model for new generations around the world.”
In her acceptance speech, Yeoh thanked Knobloch, Pinault, and Kering for “recognising the importance of women’s voices in the arts and for creating this platform to celebrate them.”
“For too long, we as women have been left out of rooms and conversations,” she added. “We have been told the door is closed to us. Well, Virginia Woolf once said, ‘There is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.’ Our ideas are endless. Our passion is infinite, and we have come to knock that door down.”
“I stand here for all who are still to come: for every little girl with big dreams, for every young woman paving her way, for every woman my age breaking out of every box she had been placed in. I am holding the door open for you. We will never let it be closed again,” she concluded.
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