The man behind The Godfather series, Apocalypse Now and most recently the ambitious Megalopolis, Francis Ford Coppola is being awarded the American Film Institute’s Life Achievement Award in a special broadcast airing on TNT tonight, June 18, at 10 pm ET/PT.
The award, handed out annually since 1973 (save for 2020 & 2021), recognizes “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.” That describes Coppola to a "T," as he is the 50th recipient of the AFI Life Achievement Award.
The broadcast of The AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to Francis Ford Coppola will feature clips from Coppola’s iconic movies; tributes from collaborators including Robert De Niro, Adam Driver, Harrison Ford, Morgan Freeman, Dustin Hoffman, Ron Howard, C. Thomas Howell, Diane Lane, Spike Lee, George Lucas, Ralph Macchio, Al Pacino and Steven Spielberg, as well as family members Gia Coppola and Roman Coppola; a performance of “Brucia La Terra” from The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Correlone by Josh Groban; and clips of an exclusive interview conducted by Sofia Coppola.
This is a delayed showing of the actual event, which took place on April 26 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. If you’re not able to watch The AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to Francis Ford Coppola tonight, it will have an encore airing on Turner Classic Movies on July 31 at 8 pm ET/PT. You can also record the broadcast and watch at your convenience.
Coppola is one of the most revered filmmakers in Hollywood history, as The Godfather and The Godfather Part II are considered two of the greatest movies ever made, with both winning Best Picture and nine Oscars in total between them. In between those two movies he made another acclaimed movie, The Conversation (which came out the same year as The Godfather Part II, 1974). He then closed out perhaps one of the greatest decades of filmmaking with another masterpiece, Apocalypse Now in 1979.
Coppola’s career after the 70s was more mixed, though he made notable movies like The Outsiders and 1992’s Dracula. He also created the independent production company American Zoetrope, where the director made attempts to push for independence from Hollywood studios. Those efforts, along with an account on the making of Apocalypse Now are detailed in the book The Path to Paradise: A Francis Ford Coppola Story.
AFI also has a special webpage dedicated to Coppola for this honor that you can check out right here.
In order to watch The AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to Francis Ford Coppola on TNT, you must have a traditional pay-TV provider or a live TV streaming service that carries the channel. In terms of the latter, that can include the likes of Hulu with Live TV, Sling TV and YouTube TV.
If you're interested in watching any of Coppola's classic movies, The Godfather and The Godfather Part Two are streaming on Paramount Plus; The Conversation is streaming for free on Prime Video; and Apocalypse Now is available on-demand.
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