The artistic Director of the IFFM, Melita Toscan du Plantier, who gave her on this occasion the Etoile d'Or of the Festival, highlighted the exceptional talent of Michelle Yeoh known for her action roles, her choreographic fluency and her mastery of martial arts.
 
For her part, the Asian actress was "honoured" by this tribute, noting that through these roles she is trying to prove that a woman can also do "battle, running on rooftops while retaining her femininity ".

"I am impressed by the welcome I received in Morocco and the Moroccan hospitality," she added, expressing the wish to make a film soon in Morocco and "run on the rooftops of Marrakech”.

The ceremony was followed by the screening of the film Far North (2007), directed by Asif Kapadia, who introduced this feature.

Born as Yang Zi Chong in the mining town of Ipoh in West Malaysia in the lunar year of the Tiger, she spoke English and Malay before Chinese. A ballet dancer since age 4, she moved to London, England to study at the Royal Academy as a teenager. After a brief dance career, she won the Miss Malaysia beauty pageant title in her native country and the Miss Moomba beauty pageant title in Melbourne, Australia in the early 1980s. Her first on camera work was a 1984 commercial with martial arts star Jackie Chan. In 1985, she began making action movies with D&B Films of Hong Kong. She was first billed as Michelle Khan, then later, Michelle Yeoh. Never a trained martial artist, she relied on her dance discipline and her on-set trainers to prepare for her martial arts action scenes.

She uses many dance moves in her films. She still does most of her own stunts and has been injured many times. Ironically, she still cannot read Chinese and she has to have Chinese script read to her. In 1988, she married wealthy D&B Films executive Dickson Poon and retired from acting. In 1995, Michelle Yeoh decided to extend her record as an actress by turning in two dramatic films: the epic by Mabel Cheung, "The Soong Sisters," which earned her a summons to the Hong Kong Film Award for best actress in a role secondary, and "Ah Kam" of Ann Hui. She became very popular to Chinese audiences and she became known to western audiences through her co-starring roles in the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) by Roger Spottiswoode. She turned down a role in a sequel to The Matrix (1999). In 2000, she was named best actress at the British Academy Award, the Hong Kong Film Award and Golden Horse Film Festival in Taipei for her role in another global success: "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" by Ang Lee.

She has her own production company, Mythical Films and has trained with the Shen Yang Acrobatic team for her role in The Touch (2002), an English language film she is both starring in and producing. She hopes to use her company to discover and nurture new filmmaking talent. She also wants to act in roles that combine both action and deeper spiritual themes.

Michelle Yeoh began production in 2002 with the film adventure "The Talisman" by Peter Pau, she also won the lead role, then in 2003 with "Silver Hawk" by Jingle Ma Elected Producer of the Year by CineAsia, her contribution to cultural exchanges between Asia and France awarded her in 2007 the distinction of Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur.

Michelle Yeoh has played recently in many films including "Memoirs of a Geisha" by Rob Marshall (2004), "Sunshine" Danny Boyle (2007), "Far North" directed by Asif Kapadia (2007), "The Mummy -The tomb of the Dragon Emperor  "by Rob Cohen (2008) and" Babylon AD " by Mathieu Kassovitz (2008).