A group of top filmmakers and actors gathered over the weekend to honor Francis Ford Coppola as he received the 50th AFI Lifetime Achievement Award in Hollywood.
At 86, Coppola joins a list of directors like Alfred Hitchcock, Martin Scorsese, and Mel Brooks to receive the recognition. Present at Saturday night’s event were Adam Driver, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman, Spike Lee, Harrison Ford, Diane Lane, and Ralph Macchio, who all celebrated the prestigious award presented by Steven Spielberg and George Lucas.
“‘The Godfather,’ for me, is the greatest American film ever made,” Spielberg told Coppola, according to Vanity Fair. “You are peerless. You’ve taken what has come before and redefined the canon of American film, and you’ve inspired a generation of storytellers who want to make you proud of their work. And I always want to make you proud of my work,” he added before introducing Lucas to the stage.
“You rounded up a bunch of young film students, and we moved to San Francisco, hoping to beat the system. And we did,” Lucas said. “We had no rules. We wrote them, with you holding the pen. Thank you for creating an era of filmmakers who loved the movies.”
During the evening, Ford remembered meeting Lucas while working as a carpenter for Coppola. At the time, Lucas was searching for the right Han Solo and was introduced to Ford, “covered in sawdust, wearing my tool belt, sweeping the floor. You might know the rest,” said Ford. “But I’m here tonight because of the community that Francis nurtured.”
Pacino, meanwhile, spoke about his experience working on “The Godfather.”
“None of us were fired, but some of us got pretty close. I got the closest,” Pacino joked. “Francis fought for us all the time. It could have gotten him fired. Now, years later, here we all are to celebrate him.”
Taking to the stage at the Dolby Theatre, Driver spoke about the direction he received from Coppola while working on “Megalopolis.”
“We’re not being brave enough,” he recalled the filmmaker telling the cast and crew of the film.
“It was well documented that he was spending $120 million of his own money to make the film,” Driver said. “I’m mad enough if I spent $5 on a cup of coffee and it’s not hot enough—let alone $120 million and giving it to a bunch of actors, and on day one telling them to ‘be brave.'”
Driver then praised Coppola for not letting finances dictate the content of his films.
“For a year when the importance of the arts is being minimized,” Driver said, “and our industry is only judging a film’s success by how much money it makes, I hang on to people like Francis for inspiration.”
Earlier in the evening, David Lynch was posthumously awarded the Franklin J. Schaffner Alumni Medal. In a pre-recorded video, Lynch praised AFI for helping filmmakers find and champion their unique voices, according to Variety. The event will be televised later on TNT and TCM.
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