Francis Ford Coppola will receive AFI’s 50th Life Achievement Award

The American Film Institute has announced that veteran director Francis Ford Coppola will receive its 50th Life Achievement Award. The honor has previously gone to filmmakers John Ford, William Wyler, Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, and Mike Nichols, among many others. This comes after Coppola won our poll as the director most deserving of the AFI’s honor, so our readers are bound to be happy.

Kathleen Kennedy, Chair of the AFI Board of Trustees, said in a statement, “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. AFI is honored to present him with the 50th AFI Life Achievement Award.”

Coppola has divided critics with his latest film — the ambitious, self-funded epic “Megalopolis” — but he’s also responsible for some of the most famous productions of all time. In fact, he appeared three times on the AFI’s most recent list of the 100 greatest American movies of all time: “The Godfather” (1972) at number-two, “Apocalypse Now” (1979) at number-30, and “The Godfather Part II” (1974) at number-32. Only four directors posted more films on that list: Steven Spielberg (five), Hitchcock (four), Wilder (four), and Stanley Kubrick (four).

The filmmaker has won a remarkable five competitive Oscars: Best Original Screenplay for “Patton” (1970); Best Adapted Screenplay for “Godfather”; and Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay for “Godfather Part II.” He also received the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award from the motion picture academy in 2011. He claimed the Palme d’Or twice at the Cannes Film Festival, for “The Conversation” (1974) and “Apocalypse Now.” And in 1998 he received the Directors Guild of America’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

The AFI Life Achievement Award will be bestowed on Coppola at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, California, on April 26, 2025.