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AFI Honors “Art And Farts” Of American Film With Laugh-Filled Mel Brooks Tribute

By PETE HAMMOND | Friday June 7, 2013 @ 10:48am PDTTags: AFI, American Film Institute, Amy Poehler, Bob Gazzale, Carl Reiner, Howard Stringer, Martin Scorsese, Martin Short, Mel Brooks, Woody Allen
Pete Hammond

It was completely appropriate that AFI‘s 41st Life Achievement Award honoree Mel Brooks made his entrance at the Dolby Theatre to the Steven Sondheim song, “Comedy Tonight”.  It set the tone immediately for a very different evening than any that had come before at this annual event. Look at the list of the 40 previous AFI honorees, and there’s not a single solely comedic filmmaker or actor in the whole bunch. Yes, there are some — like Billy Wilder, Mike Nichols, Shirley MacLaine and Tom Hanks — who have made a few classic comedies but no one whose whole screen career is built on laughs. The AFI finally corrected that glaring omission Thursday night.

“Ladies and gentlemen, tonight the American Film Institute honors the art — and the farts — of American film,”  said AFI Board Of Trustees Chair Sir Howard Stringer in welcoming the star-studded crowd. “When I telephoned Mel to tell him the AFI had voted him in as the 2013 recipient, he responded instantly, ‘What took you so long?’ Fair enough. Comedy is routinely short-changed at many awards ceremonies , particularly the Oscars. It is often said comedy is harder than drama because funny is like trying to catch lightning in a bottle. That makes  Mel, without question, Hollywood’s principal lightning conductor.” READ MORE »

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Martin Scorsese To Present Mel Brooks With AFI Award

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Monday May 20, 2013 @ 7:43am PDTTags: AFI, Martin Scorsese, Mel Brooks

Los Angeles, CA, Monday May 20, 2013 – Martin Scorsese will present Mel Brooks with the American Film Institute’s 41st Life Achievement Award – America’s highest honor for a career in film. The private black tie gala will be held at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on June 6

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AFI Awards: Hollywood Power Players Turn Out For A Moment Of Sanity During Oscar Season Madness

By PETE HAMMOND | Saturday January 12, 2013 @ 10:59am PSTTags: AFI, AFI Awards, American Film Institute, Amy Pascal, Ben Affleck, Daniel Day-Lewis, Silver Linings Playbook, Sir Howard Stringer, Steven Spielberg
Pete Hammond

Between the roller-coaster ride of Thursday’s 85th Academy Award Nominations and Critics Choice Awards and this weekend’s Golden Globes mania, Friday’s annual AFI Awards Luncheon was not only a breath of fresh air in this busy season. … Read More »

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AFI Appoints Capitol Hill Veteran Jennifer Hoelzer VP Communications

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Monday June 18, 2012 @ 11:20am PDTTags: AFI

LOS ANGELES, CA, June 18, 2012 – Concluding its coast-to-coast search, the American Film Institute (AFI) announced that Jennifer Hoelzer will be joining AFI effective July 16 as Vice President, Communications where she will be responsible for developing and

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Mel Brooks, David Lynch Receive Honorary Degrees At AFI Commencement

By PETE HAMMOND | Wednesday June 13, 2012 @ 5:25pm PDTTags: AFI, American Film Institute, David Lynch, Grauman's Chinese, Mel Brooks
Pete Hammond

June is  the season for graduations around the nation and the American Film Institute is no different. After handing out their 40th Life Achievement Award less than a week ago to Shirley MacLaine today the focus was on those just embarking on a … Read More »

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AFI Degrees To Mel Brooks & David Lynch

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Tuesday May 29, 2012 @ 6:33pm PDTTags: AFI, David Lynch, Mel Brooks

LOS ANGELES, CA, May 29, 2012 – The American Film

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Meryl Streep To Present Shirley MacLaine With AFI Life Achievement Award

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Tuesday May 22, 2012 @ 7:23pm PDTTags: AFI, Meryl Streep, Shirley MacLaine

LOS ANGELES, May 22, 2012 — AFI Life Achievement Award honoree Meryl Streep will present Shirley MacLaine with the American Film Institute’s 40th Life Achievement Award – America’s highest honor for a career in film. The private black tie

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AFI to Screen ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ At The White House Thursday Night

By PETE HAMMOND | Wednesday April 4, 2012 @ 12:00pm PDTTags: AFI, Gregory Peck, President Obama, TO Kill A Mockingbird, White House
Pete Hammond

The 50th Anniversary celebration of the Academy Award winning 1962 classic, To Kill A Mockingbird just got a very high profile addition with the American Film Institute’s announcement today that the film will be screened tomorrow night, April 5,  at the White … Read More »

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AFI Surprises Howard Stringer With … Sean Connery

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Thursday February 23, 2012 @ 3:17pm PSTTags: AFI, Howard Stringer, Sean Connery

This morning the AFI Board Of Trustees meeting was held from 9-11 AM at the Peninsula Hotel. Among those attending were Sir Howard Stringer, Bob Daly, Amy Pascal, Christopher Dodd, Thomas Tull, Chris Silbermann, Rich Ross, and more. As a … Read More »

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AFI Fest Announces Centerpiece Galas And Special Screenings

By PETE HAMMOND | Tuesday October 18, 2011 @ 11:00am PDTTags: AFI, American Film Institute, Carnage, J. Edgar, My Week With Marilyn, Pedro Almodovar, Shame, The Artist, The Lady
Pete Hammond

With just a little more than two weeks to go before its opening-night world premiere gala of Clint Eastwood’s J. Edgar on November 3, the American Film Institute has just announced the long list of Centerpiece Galas and Special Screenings for its 25th edition — AFI FEST 2011 presented by Audi. Unlike the Eastwood coup, the lineup doesn’t include any other world or North American premieres and instead is made up of films recently seen in Toronto, Venice, Telluride or New York or combinations of all of the above festivals.

The AFI Fest, which runs November 3-10, is becoming known as the festival of galas, with at least one big red-carpet event every night of the week. Slated as Centerpiece Galas this session are Luc Besson’s The Lady (November 4), which played the Mill Valley Film Festival last week in a version now several minutes shorter than its well-received Toronto Film Festival premiere; Roman Polanski’s Carnage (November 5); My Week With Marilyn (November 6); The Artist (November 8); and Steve McQueen’s controversial Shame (November 9). Also on November 7, the fest will present an evening with Pedro Almodovar, this year’s Guest Artistic Director, who will be presenting his 25-year-old classic Law of Desire and participating in a special onstage conversation. All will be presented at the Chinese theater in Hollywood. Read More »

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Pedro Almodovar To Be Guest Artistic Director At AFI Fest

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Monday August 29, 2011 @ 6:04am PDTTags: AFI, American Film Institute, Pedro Almodovar
Mike Fleming

The American Film Institute has set Pedro Almodovar to be Guest Artistic Director at AFI Fest 2011. The 25-year-old festival runs Nov. 3-10. Almodovar will present a screening of his 1986 film Law of Desire, which is also 25 years … Read More »

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Hammond: Morgan Freeman Honored With AFI Life Achievement Award

By PETE HAMMOND | Friday June 10, 2011 @ 4:52pm PDTTags: AFI, Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman, Sidney Poitier, TV Land
Pete Hammond

He may have only received his first major big-screen break at the age of 50 in 1987′s Street Smart, but Morgan Freeman has created such a distinguished body of work in the quarter of a century since then that Thursday night he was named the 39th recipient of the AFI Life Achievement Award for a career in film. Just after the honor was announced by the American Film Institute on October 11th, I ran into Freeman at an awards-season event and he was ebullient, telling me, “Now I am one of the big boys.” During Thursday’s warm ceremony on Sony’s Stage 15 and at the after-party nearby on the lot, Freeman still seemed just as happy about the honor.

In fact, after he accepted the award from his Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby co-star and director Clint Eastwood and made his speech, he became the first of the AFI’s 39 honorees to actually remain on stage and sing along to one of his theme songs, “Lean On Me,” from the 1989 film in which he starred as real-life school principal Joe Clark. Earlier in the evening, Garth Brooks and a large chorus sang the song — actually twice, as a snafu forced them to perform it again. The black-tie industry crowd didn’t seem to mind at all.

Among those in attendance who offered toasts or onstage tributes with personal anecdotes about Freeman were Sidney Poitier, AFI Board of Trustees chair Howard Stringer, AFI president and CEO Bob Gazzale, Betty White, Samuel L. Jackson, Rita Moreno, Don Cheadle, Matthew Broderick, Helen Mirren, Cuba Gooding Jr, Matthew McConaughey, Casey Affleck, Forest Whitaker and Tim Robbins. Filmed tributes were also shown from Chris Rock, Dan Ackroyd, Steven Spielberg, David Fincher and Ashley Judd.

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OSCAR: Stealth AFI Premiere For ‘The Fighter’

By PETE HAMMOND | Wednesday November 10, 2010 @ 2:06am PSTTags: AFI, Amy Adams, Christian Bale, Mark Wahlberg, Oscars, Paramount, The Fighter
Pete Hammond

Paramount and the AFI Festival pulled off a sneak awards season manuever Tuesday night with a previously unannounced screening of Oscar hopeful, The Fighter. Billed as a “secret screening” on the ticket but also labeled a “World Premiere”  in a Tuesday morning … Read More »

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