When Francis Ford Coppola receives the AFI Life Achievement Award in Hollywood on Saturday, he will be supported by an A-list group of friends, family and former collaborators.
The American Film Institute announced on Tuesday that George Lucas and Steven Spielberg will present the 50th AFI Life Achievement Award to the famed filmmaker at the Dolby Theater. Gia and Roman Coppola, Robert De Niro, Adam Driver, Harrison Ford, Morgan Freeman, Dustin Hoffman, Ron Howard, C. Thomas Howell, Diane Lane, Spike Lee, Ralph Macchio and Al Pacino will also be among the presenters and guests taking part in the event.
“There is only one Francis Ford Coppola,” AFI president and CEO Bob Gazzale said in a statement. “And it is AFI’s honor to gather the art and entertainment communities, along with his family, friends and colleagues to celebrate cinema — all of it and the very best of it.”
The AFI Life Achievement Award is presented to a person “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,” with recent honorees having included Nicole Kidman, Julie Andrews, Denzel Washington, George Clooney and Diane Keaton.
Following the event, a televised special, The 50th Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to Francis Ford Coppola, will premiere on TNT at a later date, with an encore airing on TCM.
The honor comes on the heels of Coppola’s polarizing Megalopolis, and the evening will additionally celebrate his list of iconic films including The Godfather, The Godfather Part II and Apocalypse Now. He also co-founded American Zoetrope with Lucas, having helped the careers of stars including Pacino, De Niro and Ford.