The American Film Institute (AFI) Board of Trustees announced today that Francis Ford Coppola will be the 50th recipient of the AFI Life Achievement Award, America’s highest honor for a career in film. The award will be presented to Coppola at a Gala Tribute at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on April 26, 2025.

“Francis Ford Coppola is a peerless artist – one who has created seminal works in the canon of American film, and has also inspired generations of filmmakers who now embody his artistry and his independent spirit,” said Kathleen Kennedy, Chair of the AFI Board of Trustees. “AFI is honored to present him with the 50th AFI Life Achievement Award.”

Coppola’s “The Godfather,” “The Godfather Part II” and “Apocalypse Now” are ranked among history’s greatest films in AFI’s 100 Years…100 Movies list. He is one of the most acclaimed filmmakers of our time; a six-time Academy Award-winning (including the Board of Governors’ Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award) director, writer and producer of such films as “Patton,” “The Godfather Trilogy,” “American Graffiti,” “The Conversation,” “Apocalypse Now,” “The Outsiders,” “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” and his latest epic, “Megalopolis.”

As the co-founder of American Zoetrope with George Lucas, Coppola initiated and nourished the careers of talents such as Carroll Ballard, John Milius, Sofia Coppola, and actors Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, James Caan, Harrison Ford, Richard Dreyfus, Diane Keaton, Robert Duvall, Matt Dillon and Diane Lane. As a writer, director, producer and technological pioneer, he created a body of work that has helped shape contemporary American cinema. Coppola’s latest film “Megalopolis” is a Roman epic set in modern times with an all-star cast including Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jon Voight, Laurence Fishburne and Aubrey Plaza. This year, the film made its world premiere to a 10-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival, and was released theatrically and in IMAX globally earlier this fall.

The AFI Life Achievement Award Tribute special will return for its 10th year with Turner Broadcasting to air on TNT, followed by encore presentations on Turner Classic Movies (TCM).

The American Film Institute is a nonprofit organization with a mandate to champion the moving image as an art form. All proceeds from the 50th AFI Life Achievement Award Tribute Gala support AFI’s education and arts initiatives. Learn more about AFI at AFI.com.

AFI Life Achievement Award Recipients

The 50th AFI Life Achievement Award Honoree joins an esteemed group of individuals who have been chosen for this distinguished honor since its inception.

1973 John Ford
1974 James Cagney
1975 Orson Welles
1976 William Wyler
1977 Bette Davis
1978 Henry Fonda
1979 Alfred Hitchcock
1980 James Stewart
1981 Fred Astaire
1982 Frank Capra
1983 John Huston
1984 Lillian Gish
1985 Gene Kelly
1986 Billy Wilder
1987 Barbara Stanwyck
1988 Jack Lemmon
1989 Gregory Peck
1990 David Lean
1991 Kirk Douglas
1992 Sidney Poitier
1993 Elizabeth Taylor
1994 Jack Nicholson
1995 Steven Spielberg
1996 Clint Eastwood
1997 Martin Scorsese
1998 Robert Wise
1999 Dustin Hoffman
2000 Harrison Ford
2001 Barbra Streisand
2002 Tom Hanks
2003 Robert De Niro
2004 Meryl Streep
2005 George Lucas
2006 Sean Connery
2007 Al Pacino
2008 Warren Beatty
2009 Michael Douglas
2010 Mike Nichols
2011 Morgan Freeman
2012 Shirley MacLaine
2013 Mel Brooks
2014 Jane Fonda
2015 Steve Martin
2016 John Williams
2017 Diane Keaton
2018 George Clooney
2019 Denzel Washington
2022 Julie Andrews
2024 Nicole Kidman

About the AFI Life Achievement Award
The highest honor given for a career in film, the AFI Board of Trustees established the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1973. It is presented to a single honoree each year based on the following criteria as mandated through a resolution passed by the AFI Board of Trustees: “The recipient should be one whose talent has in a fundamental way advanced the film art; whose accomplishment has been acknowledged by scholars, critics, professional peers and the general public; and whose work has stood the test of time.”

Most recently, AFI presented the 49th AFI Life Achievement Award to Nicole Kidman on Saturday, April 27, at a Gala Tribute in Hollywood. Lee Daniels, Ava DuVernay, Zac Efron, Cynthia Erivo, Morgan Freeman, Barry Jenkins, David E. Kelley, Joey King, Mimi Leder, Mike Myers, Edward James Olmos, Michelle Pfeiffer, Jane Seymour, Meryl Streep, Brian Tee, Miles Teller, Lulu Wang, Naomi Watts and more filled the Dolby Theatre to celebrate Kidman’s award-winning career and her indelible impact on the moving arts. The event also featured tributes honoring Kidman, including speeches from Zoe Saldaña, Aaron Sorkin, Keith Urban, Reese Witherspoon, among others and taped messages from Hugh Jackman, Jane Campion, Jimmy Fallon, Cate Blanchett, George Miller, Baz Luhrmann and Russell Crowe.

About the American Film Institute (AFI)
The American Film Institute (AFI) is a nonprofit organization with a mandate to champion the moving image as an art form. Established in 1967, AFI launched the first comprehensive history of American film and sparked the movement for film preservation in the United States. In 1969, AFI opened the doors of the AFI Conservatory, a graduate-level program to train narrative filmmakers. The Conservatory, which counts Deniese Davis, Affonso Gonçalves, Susannah Grant, Matthew Libatique, David Lynch, Melina Matsoukas and Rachel Morrison as Alumni, is ranked as one of the top film schools in America. AFI’s enduring traditions include the AFI Life Achievement Award, which honors the masters for work that has stood the test of time; AFI Awards, which celebrates the creative ensembles of the most outstanding screen stories of the year; and scholarly efforts such as the AFI Catalog of Feature Films and the AFI Archive that preserve film history for future generations. AFI exhibition programs include AFI Fest and year-round exhibition at the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center in Maryland. AFI Movie Club is a destination for movie lovers from around the world to celebrate and engage with the art form every day. Other pioneering programs include workshops aimed at increasing diversity in the storytelling community, including AFI DWW+ and the AFI Cinematography Intensive for Women.