Francis Ford Coppola celebrated at AFI Life Achievement Tribute: “Fuck the bankers and the backers”
Francis Ford Coppola was honoured by friends, colleagues and collaborators on April 26th, upon receiving the 2025 AFI Life Achievement Award at the Dolby Theatre. The night included a spate of impassioned and reflective speeches.
Stars attending and speaking at the event included Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Morgan Freeman, Harrison Ford, Adam Driver and Spike Lee.
The celebration of Coppola as an independent filmmaker began with Morgan Freeman heartily joking that though he had “never, ever been in a movie written, directed or produced by Francis Ford Coppola,” he was consistently moved by his movies.
Freeman continued poetically, calling Coppola a “weaver of dreams on a dime, teller of tales that cost and lost millions. But tonight, fuck the bankers and the backers. We are here to celebrate art and we are here to celebrate Francis Ford Coppola.”
Harrison Ford was a struggling actor when Coppola chose him for American Graffiti. Ford told the attendees: “I’m here tonight because of the community that Francis nurtured — a place where storytellers could be free, with their ideas unencumbered by doubt, by commerce, by the fucking rules.”
Next came a double act from Pacino and De Niro, recalling days gone by from the set of The Godfather. “Francis just fought for us all the time. He fought for his film and his vision, which he always does. Francis, you changed my career, you changed my life. We’re all here tonight because of you. We love you,” they said in a heart-warming salute.
Coppola’s most recent film, Megalopolis, came out in 2024 and featured Adam Driver in the key role. Driver gave an impassioned note on Coppola’s courage, as he spent $120 million of his own money on the recent film. He saluted Coppola for “not letting the money dictate the content of the film.” Though it was a box office bomb, Coppola’s commitment to his vision never wavered.
Driver used this point to gesture at the industry at large: “This is a principled life, and for a year in our culture when the importance of the arts is minimized and our industry is seemingly out in the open that the only metric to judge a film’s success is by how much money it makes, I hang on to individuals like Francis for inspiration, who live through their convictions, through big moves, all in service of pushing the medium forward,” Driver continued. “Francis took $120million and created a singular gesture for what he thought film could be, and I think that’s pretty great.”
Coppola was more than aware of the film’s reception, especially given that the film won many Golden Raspberry Awards, a satirical awards ceremony honouring the worst films of the year. In reaction, he took to Instagram to write: “I’m thrilled to accept the Razzie Award in so many important categories for Megalopolis, and for the distinctive honour of being nominated as the worst director, worst screen play, and worst picture at a time when so few have the courage to go against the prevailing trends of contemporary movie-making!”
As a musical interlude, Josh Groban performed “Brucia La Terra” from The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone.
Spielberg then took to the stage when the time fast approached to present the award. He talked of “friends and fellow storytellers who have been in the trenches, talking intellect and emotion,” saying Coppola was at the forefront of a movement that focused on “not what we think will make good box office, but what we think will make great art. Because that’s what creates films like Apocalypse Now,”
In a following speech, Lucas, long-time collaborator of Coppola, said the director taught him not to “be afraid of jumping off cliffs.” He continued: “You’re our hero, Francis. We had no rules — we wrote them with you holding the pen. Thank you for creating an era of filmmakers who loved the movies.”
Coppola, overwhelmed and often covering his face through the night, finally closed out the night with a musing that “after many years I’ve returned to the old neighbourhood where I grew up.” He concluded: “Now I understand here, this place that created me, my home, isn’t really a place at all but you friends, colleagues, teachers, playmates, family, neighbors — all of the beautiful faces are welcoming me back because I am and will always be nothing more than one of you.”
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