Angelina Jolie celebrates her 50th birthday with new film and Netflix projects.

The actress, whose divorce from Brad Pitt was finalized late last year, is celebrating her 50th birthday with enthusiasm, fueled by a packed schedule of film and television projects and a professional renaissance that includes her comeback on Netflix.

“ I’m looking forward to turning 50. For me, it’s a victory ,” Jolie said during the New York Film Festival, which took place in September and October of last year, and which she attended to present the biopic Maria, which tells the story of the diva Maria Callas, a diva played by another.

For Jolie, every birthday is a victory because her mother, actress Marcheline Bertrand, died at age 57 from breast cancer. That painful episode marked her life forever, and so, between 2013 and 2015, she made the drastic decision to undergo preventative surgery to remove her breasts, ovaries, and fallopian tubes, after discovering that she had an 87 percent and 50 percent chance of developing breast and ovarian cancer, inherited from her mother.

Jolie even became a voice urging women to get routine medical checkups to prevent death from this issue.

A decade after that decision, the actress celebrates her 50th birthday, the same age her mother was when she was diagnosed with cancer, and she does so with the enthusiasm of an established star with many more stories to tell.

Angelina Jolie Voight needs no introduction, but it's worth remembering that she was born on June 4, 1975, in Los Angeles, California, into a family of artists.

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Of French-Canadian descent on her mother's side and German and Czechoslovakian descent on her father, Jon Voight, her brother, James Haven, is also involved in the family profession. It's no surprise then that Jolie was only seven years old when she made her debut in the film Lookin' to Get Out (1982), alongside her parents.

Already in her teens, she tried her hand at modeling, but despite being considered one of the most beautiful women in the world, she was bullied by her peers because of her physique, which forced her to temporarily abandon the acting path she had always been determined to pursue. However, she eventually returned to it. She graduated from the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute in New York and, as if to renounce being a "nepo baby," changed her father's surname to the one that had led her to fame. And thus, a star was born: Angelina Jolie.

Since then, her filmography is almost endless: George Wallace (1997), Gia (1998), Girl, Interrupted (1999), Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001), Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005), Changeling (2008), Maleficent (2014), Eternals (2021) and the recent Maria (2024), among many other titles.

And it's precisely now, as she's blowing out her 50th birthday, that her career—which suffered some pauses due to health problems, motherhood, and the personal drama of her divorce—continues to sail with a clear wind : "I'm getting better roles as I get older," she said in an interview with The Times.

One of those roles will be in the film Maude v Maude, a thriller that will also star Halle Berry and be set in less conventional locations. In fact, there's a possibility that part of the filming will take place in Saudi Arabia.

Jolie also has several projects coming up, such as Maleficent 3 (the long-awaited third installment of the Disney villain saga), Every Note Played, Stitches, and Without Blood, which she directs and which already debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival in Canada and the Torino Film Festival in Italy.

Interestingly, 2025 also brought her another early birthday present: the revival of Life or Something Like It, a 2002 romantic comedy that flopped and which the actress admitted to hating. It's now one of Netflix's most-watched shows.

As for her personal life, the "Brangelina" romance has been one of the most closely watched by the press in recent years. Jolie and Brad Pitt were Hollywood's hottest couple from 2005 to 2016, when they ended their relationship. After eight years, their divorce was finalized on December 30, 2024.

“Over eight years ago, Angelina filed for divorce from Mr. Pitt. She and the children relinquished all of the property they had shared with Mr. Pitt, and she has since focused on finding peace and healing for her family,” James Simon, the actress’s attorney, wrote in a statement.

Since then, the actress has remained single. A source close to her explained to US Weekly, "It's hard for her to trust men after what happened with Brad," and noted that "she's not looking for anything right now." But that doesn't mean Jolie doesn't feel "fulfilled and happy with her children and her life."

Because for her, her family is her pillar. “I was 26 when I became a mother. Having children saved me. They taught me to evolve differently in this world,” the actress said in a recent interview with Vanidades.

At 50, Angelina Jolie doesn't measure her success by the roles she's offered, but by what each life experience brings her. And if experience is a degree, this Hollywood diva already has the upper hand.