highest-grossing film ever. jolie next completed her second directorial venture, unbroken (2014), a film about louis zamperini (1917–2014), a former olympic track star and world war ii soldier who survived a plane crash and spent two years in a japanese prisoner-of-war camp. she also served as producer under her jolie pas banner. based on laura hillenbrand's biography of the same name, the film was scripted by the coen brothers and starred jack o'connell. after a positive early reception, unbroken was considered a likely best picture and best director contender, but it ultimately received mixed reviews and little award recognition, though it was named one of the best films of the year by the national board of review and the american film institute. variety magazine's justin chang noted the film's "impeccable craftsmanship and sober restraint", but deemed it "an extraordinary story told in dutiful, unexceptional terms." financially, unbroken was successful at the box office worldwide. jolie promoting eternals at the 2019 san diego comic-con international jolie's next directorial effort was the marital drama by the sea (2015), in which she starred opposite her husband, brad pitt, marking their first collaboration since 2005's mr. & mrs. smith. based on her screenplay, the film was a deeply personal project for jolie, who drew inspiration from her own mother's life. critics, however, dismissed it as a "vanity project," as part of an overall poor reception. writing for the washington post, stephanie merry noted its dearth of genuine emotion, stating, "by the sea is dazzlingly gorgeous, as are its stars. but peeling back layer upon layer of exquisite ennui reveals nothing but emptiness, sprinkled with stilted sentiments." despite starring two of hollywood's leading actors, the film received only a limited release. as jolie preferred to dedicate herself to her humanitarian work, her cinematic output remained infrequent. first they killed my father (2017), a drama set during cambodia's khmer rouge era, again enabled her to combine both interests. in addition to directing the film, she co-wrote the screenplay with her longtime friend loung ung, whose memoirs about the regime's child labor camps served as its source material. intended primarily for a cambodian audience, the film was produced directly for netflix, which allowed for the use of an exclusively khmer cast and script. labeling jolie as a "skilled and sensitive filmmaker", rafer guzmán of newsday commended her for "convincingly depict the illogical hell of the khmer rouge era". it received nominations for the golden globe award for best foreign language film and bafta award for best film not in the english language. varying critical receptions (2019–present) jolie reprised the role of maleficent in the disney fantasy sequel maleficent: mistress of evil (2019), which received unfavorable reviews from critics but performed moderately well commercially, with a global gross of $490 million. the following year, she appeared alongside david oyelowo as grieving parents to the title characters of alice in wonderland and peter pan in the fantasy film come away. jolie starred as a smokejumper in taylor sheridan's action thriller those who wish me dead. the film was released in may 2021, garnering moderate reviews. the independent's clarisse loughrey wrote jolie's "bare-knuckled performance ... easily outclasses the film that contains it". jolie next played thena, a warrior with post-traumatic stress disorder, in the marvel cinematic universe superhero film eternals. released in november 2021, the film generated divergent responses from audiences and critics. reviewing the film for the washington post, ann hornaday highlighted the "touching naivete" in jolie's portrayal. jolie's next project is a film adaptation of the novel without blood by alessandro baricco, which she directed, wrote, and produced. it stars salma hayek and demián bichir. she is set to star in pablo larraín's biographical film about opera singer maria callas, titled maria. she is attached to produce and star in the thriller film the kept, an adaptation of the james scott novel. humanitarian work unhcr ambassadorship "we cannot close ourselves off to information and ignore the fact that millions of people are out there suffering. i honestly want to help. i don't believe i feel differently from other people. i think we all want justice and equality, a chance for a life with meaning. all of us would like to believe that if we were in a bad situation someone would help us." —jolie on her motives for joining unhcr in 2001 jolie first witnessed the effects of a humanitarian crisis while filming lara croft: tomb raider (2001) in war-torn cambodia, an experience she later credited with having brought her a greater understanding of the world. upon her return home, jolie contacted the united nations high commissioner for refugees (unhcr) for information on international trouble spots. to learn more about the conditions in these areas, she began visiting refugee camps around the world. in february 2001, she went on her first field visit, an 18-day mission to sierra leone and tanzania; she later expressed her shock at what she had witnessed. in an interview with georgina lara booth, jolie stated what first inspired her to pursue humanitarian work and children's rights activism: "when i began to travel and broaden my understanding beyond my schooling, i realized all i didn’t know. i simply saw the world more as it really is and felt compelled to be of use. i don’t think of it as something good i do, but that i am fortunate to be allowed to work with so many resilient and warm people who have taught me about life and family in ways i never knew. life really means nothing if you are only living for yourself." in the following months, jolie returned to cambodia for two weeks and met with afghan refugees in pakistan, where she donated $1 million in response to an international unhcr emergency appeal, the largest donation unhcr had ever received from a private individual. she covered all costs related to her missions and shared the same rudimentary working and living conditions as unhcr field staff on all of her visits. jolie was named a unhcr goodwill ambassador at unhcr headquarters in geneva on august 27, 2001. jolie and secretary of state condoleezza rice at a unhcr celebration of world refugee day in june 2005 over the next decade, she went on more than 40 field missions, meeting with refugees and internally displaced persons in over 30 countries. in 2002, when asked what she hoped to accomplish, she stated, "awareness of the plight of these people. i think they should be commended for what they have survived, not looked down upon." to that end, her 2001–02 field visits were chronicled in her book notes from my travels, which was published in october 2003 in conjunction with the release of her humanitarian drama beyond borders. jolie aimed to visit what she termed "forgotten emergencies," crises that media attention had shifted away from. she became noted for traveling to war zones, such as sudan's darfur region during the darfur conflict, the syrian-iraqi border during the second gulf war, where she met privately with u.s. troops and other multi-national forces, and the afghan capital kabul during the war in afghanistan, where three aid workers were murdered in the midst of her first visit. to aid her travels, she began taking flying lessons in 2004 with the aim of ferrying aid workers and food supplies around the world. jolie acquired a pilot license in 2004; as of may 2014, she owns a cirrus sr22 aircraft and a cessna 208 caravan aircraft. on april 17, 2012, after more than a decade of service as a unhcr goodwill ambassador, jolie was promoted to the rank of special envoy to high commissioner antónio guterres, the first to take on such a position within the organization. in her expanded role, she was given authority to represent guterres and unhcr at the diplomatic level, with a focus on major refugee crises. in the months following her promotion, she made her first visit as special envoy—her third over all—to ecuador, where she met with colombian refugees, and she accompanied guterres on a week-long tour of jordan, lebanon, turkey, and iraq, to assess the situation of refugees from neighboring syria. since then, jolie has been on over a dozen field missions around the world to meet with refugees and undertake advocacy on their behalf. jolie resigned from the ambassadorship in december 2022. in her announcement, she pledged to continue to advocate for refugees. conservation and community development jolie at the world economic forum's annual meeting in january 2005 in an effort to connect her cambodian-born adopted son with his heritage, jolie purchased a house in his country of birth in 2003. the traditional home sat on 39 hectares in the northwestern province battambang, adjacent to samlout national park in the cardamom mountains, which had become infiltrated with poachers who threatened endangered species. she purchased the park's 60,000 hectares and turned the area into a wildlife reserve named for her son, the maddox jolie project. in recognition of her conservation efforts, king norodom sihamoni awarded her cambodian citizenship on july 31, 2005. in november 2006, jolie expanded the scope of the project—renamed the maddox jolie-pitt foundation (mjp)—to create asia's first millennium village, in accordance with un development goals. she was inspired by a meeting with the founder of millennium promise, noted economist jeffrey sachs, at the world economic forum in davos, where she was an invited speaker in 2005 and 2006. together they filmed a 2005 mtv special, the diary of angelina jolie & dr. jeffrey sachs in africa, which followed them on a trip to a millennium village in western kenya. by mid-2007, some 6,000 villagers and 72 employees—some of them former poachers employed as rangers—lived and worked at mjp, in ten villages previously isolated from one another. the compound includes schools, roads, and a soy milk factory, all funded by jolie. her home functions as the mjp field headquarters. after filming beyond borders (2003) in namibia, jolie became patron of the harnas wildlife foundation, a wildlife orphanage and medical center in the kalahari desert. she first visited the harnas farm during production of the film, which features vultures rescued by the foundation. in december 2010, jolie and her partner, brad pitt, established the shiloh jolie-pitt foundation to support conservation work by the naankuse wildlife sanctuary, a nature reserve also located in the kalahari. in name of their namibian-born daughter, they have funded large-animal conservation projects as well as a free health clinic, housing, and a school for the san bushmen community at naankuse. jolie and pitt support other causes through the jolie-pitt foundation, established in september 2006. child immigration and education jolie has pushed for legislation to aid child immigrants and other vulnerable children in both the u.s. and developing nations, including the "unaccompanied alien child protection act of 2005." she began lobbying humanitarian interests in the u.s. capital from 2003 onwards, explaining, "as much as i would love to never have to visit washington, that's the way to move the ball." since october 2008, she has co-chaired kids in need of defense (kind), a network of leading u.s. law firms that provide free legal aid to unaccompanied minors in immigration proceedings across the u.s. founded in a collaboration between jolie and the microsoft corporation, by 2013, kind had become the principal provider of pro bono lawyers for immigrant children. jolie had previously, from 2005 to 2007, funded the launch of a similar initiative, the u.s. committee for refugees and immigrants' national center for refugee and immigrant children. jolie on the cover of ms. magazine in 2015, in which she discusses child marriage jolie has also advocated for children's education. since its founding at the clinton global initiative's annual meeting in september 2007, she has co-chaired the education partnership for children of conflict, which provides policy and funding to education programs for children in conflict-affected regions. in its first year, the partnership supported education projects for iraqi refugee children, youth affected by the darfur conflict, and girls in rural afghanistan, among other affected groups. the partnership has worked closely with the council on foreign relations' center for universal education—founded by the partnership's co-chair, noted economist gene sperling—to establish education policies, which resulted in recommendations made to un agencies, g8 development agencies, and the world bank. since april 2013, all proceeds from