Using iCloud - iPhotos on iMovie

Hey y'all,

I am new to iMovies and I am struggling to use my Photos directly in iMovies from my Mac. From postings online, I am seeing that this is not feasible - Apple to Apple not compatible? feels like a PC situation/

I find this incredible, especially taking under consideration that iCloud stores Photos as a Library without permitting directly access to photo files.

All these while I can directly access my Photos in iMovies on my phone, but I don't think that iMovies projects are shared between different types of devices?

So practically I will need to export the photos that I want to use and import them manually? Up to know I had the feeling that by using the Apple family I won't be never needing to be doing such things.