- LOS ANGELES — Hollywood
legend Francis Ford Coppola was recently honoured with the prestigious AFI Life
Achievement Award, the highest honor bestowed by the American Film Institute.
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- Many renowned filmmakers from Hollywood gathered to celebrate
the honour conferred upon Coppola. Steven Spielberg and George Lucas presented
Coppola with the 50th AFI Life Achievement Award, reports ‘Variety’.
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- Spielberg called Coppola “fearless”. Spielberg, who first
met Coppola in 1967, said, “On one hand, you are a warrior for independent
artists, you always champion their causes, but also, and always, you’re
fearless in how open you are to ideas, opinions and inspiration”.
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- As per ‘Variety’, he recalled watching an early cut of
“Apocalypse Now,” which was five hours long, with other filmmakers.
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- “When the film ended, you asked us to tell you what we saw,
how we felt. You invited all of us in, so one by one, we told you where we were
lost and where we were found, and I sat there in awe, learning that leaving yourself
open and searching was, in fact, your superpower”, he said.
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- Spielberg went on to say, “‘The Godfather,’ for me, is the
greatest American film ever made. Many artists can and do take a bow from their
work on a page, on a canvas, on a screen, but our applause for you Francis, is
from a different kind of audience. When we’re young, it’s our parents we want
to make proud, and then it’s our friends, and then it’s our colleagues, and
finally, it’s our peers, but you, sir, are peerless”.
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- “Spielberg said, “You have taken what came before and
redefined the canon of American film, and in so doing, you’ve inspired a
generation of storytellers who want to make you proud of their work, proud of
our work, and I always want to make you proud of my work”, he added.
