Joi McMillon, an Oscar-nominated film editor, reunites with director Barry Jenkins for ‘Mufasa: The Lion King’.

CHICAGO (WLS) — Joi McMillon, the first Black woman nominated for an Oscar in film editing, collaborated again with director Barry Jenkins on the latest Disney film “Mufasa: The Lion King.”

McMillon’s initial project with Jenkins was “Moonlight,” which led to her Academy Award nomination. This movie made headlines by winning Best Picture following a well-known envelope mix-up.

ABC7 Chicago is now streaming 24/7. Click here to watch

Jenkins so admired her talent when they worked on “Moonlight” that he enlisted her to join him in making “Mufasa: The Lion King.”

McMillon’s movie dreams started when she was a little girl in Florida.

“As a child, my siblings and I enjoyed pretending we were in a movie theater,” she shared. “With six kids in the family, going to the theater was a luxury. We improvised by rearranging chairs from the dining room and kitchen into rows in our living room. Little did I imagine that I would one day contribute to the enchantment of cinema that I cherished in that humble living room by working on exceptional films.”

Thus far in her career, McMillon has mostly worked on small, intimate projects. “Mufasa: The Lion King” is an entirely different scale.

“Even though the scale is bigger, our approach is still the same,” McMillon said. “Wanting to tell an authentic story that has layers of creativity, but also still inspiring. One of the things that’s really cool about this movie is that we go through very not the usual landscapes you see of Africa depicted in films. So everything that you see in the film is based on actual locations in Africa.”

“The one thing I love about editing is how present you have to be,” she added. “And one of the things that I always talk about is being a storyteller first. And, you know, people always like what the creative aspect of editing is.”

McMillon is now one of a small group of Black women who have reached the top echelon of the film industry.

“I still feel like that 10-year-old kid sometimes, you know, where I walk on a big stage at Warner Brothers. And I can’t believe that I’m about to sit down and give, you know, notes and thoughts about a film I helped create. And so, and also being a Black female, I know there’s not that many of us represented in the feature film space. And so for me, I am, I’m honored, and I feel like there’s a responsibility to keep on holding that door open for others like me to come through,” she said.

Disney is the parent company of ABC7 Chicago.