It’s an extremely busy time of year for Janet Yang, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She has the great responsibility of leading the organization ahead of Sunday’s 96th Academy Awards.
“I feel a great sense of pride and responsibility being one of the very few women and the first Asian American woman,” Yang told Scripps News national correspondent Axel Turcios.
Yang is an award-winning Hollywood producer and one of only four women to ever be named president of the Academy. It’s an accomplishment that doesn’t go unnoticed, especially on International Women’s Day.
“I think it’s a sign of the changing times. I really feel that I can very much be myself in this role, that I don’t have to conform to a different culture at the Academy,” she said.
Yang was born in Queens, New York, and raised by a family of Chinese immigrants.
She rose to prominence through her work with Steven Spielberg on the 1987 film “Empire of the Sun.” Yang’s vast film production credits include the Golden Globe-winning movie “The People vs. Larry Flynt” and the Oscar-nominated animated feature “Over the Moon.”
Yang became president of the Academy in 2022, bringing more diversity to the organization.
“We have a board of more women than men and a lot of people of color, and it’s also become very evident in the pictures that get nominated each year,” said Yang. “I feel really so gratified that the Asian American community has a lot more visibility now and representation both in front of and behind the camera.”
A testament of that visibility was Michelle Yeoh’s historic 2023 Oscar win.
Yeoh won in the best actress category for her role in “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” making her the first Asian woman to win in the category in its nearly 100-year history.
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Progress in Hollywood hasn’t come easy. Yang helped pave the way with her 1993 iconic breakthrough movie “The Joy Luck…
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