AFI Awards Draws Biggest Star Turnout Ever; Campaigns Heat Up As Oscar Voting Imminent – Notes On The Season
A column chronicling conversations and events on the awards circuit.
One of the most anticipated and fun awards shows of any season is the annual luncheon the American Film Institute throws at the Beverly Hills Four Seasons to show off its prestigious selections for the year’s best 10 movies and television programs. Friday’s event was no different and, coming just days before Oscar nomination balloting begins, it was well-timed to give boosts to those films chosen in an intimate room with lots of Academy voters watching the exceptionally well-chosen clips and kind words from the podium about each one of them, delivered this year for the first time by Ava Duvernay, who told me she thought this was a great year for movies.
This is an event where none of the producers, actors or filmmakers invited have to get up and make a speech. There are no long acceptances, only good vibes since everyone in this exclusive room is a winner, certainly a relief since every other show — starting with last weekend’s Critics Choice Awards and moving on with Sunday’s Golden Globes — start to divide the winners from those who, uh, don’t win.
RELATED: AFI Awards Luncheon Photos: Timothée Chalamet, Leonardo DiCaprio, Ariana Grande & More Celebrate Year’s Best Movies & TV Shows
Steven Spielberg works the room at the AFI Luncheon
Pete Hammond/Deadline
“This is one of my favorite awards events. The others make you sweat a bit because you don’t know who won,” Hamnet producer Steven Spielberg told me as he was greeting old friends packed into the small ballroom. I told him that on Monday I had moderated an Academy screening at the DGA for Hamnet with nine artists on the panel. It was a big hit with the sold-out crowd, which pleased him. I said I was looking forward to seeing his latest film, Disclosure Day, due this summer. “That’s why I was late today because I was viewing special effects for it. It took a while,” he laughed.
Spielberg got a special shout-out during AFI President and CEO Bob Gazzale’s welcoming remarks after the great sizzle reel showcasing all this year’s honored films and TV shows. “We have two AFI Life Achievement Award recipients in the house today. The first starred in a movie this year about receiving a life achievement award, George Clooney. The second may be the very first to receive a second AFI Life Achievement Award, Steven Spielberg,” he said referring to the fact that Spielberg was so young when he got his first AFI career award 30 years ago in 1995 (!).
From left: Mia Goth, Guillermo del Toro, Scott Stuber and Jacob Elordi
Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images
Gazzale began with some poignant remarks: “Our hearts are mixed. … We began this year with a fire, and then we said goodbye to a legend, Robert Redford, and Diane Keaton, and Rob and Michele [Reiner]. And with so much loss, why are we celebrating today? Because we need you. We need your stories to help us make sense of emotions that we cannot escape. Nor should we escape them. We’re human. We need each other. So this gathering is our annual embrace to say thank you and to say we love you.”
From left: Ethan Hawke, George Clooney and Gwyneth Paltrow
JC Olivera/Getty Images
AFI founder George Stevens Jr. received a standing ovation when he was mentioned by Gazzale, as did Carol Burnett, who delivered a short benediction at show’s end. But it was the movies and shows that did the heavy lifting with terrific clips from each including on the film side Avatar: Fire and Ash, Bugonia, Frankenstein, Hamnet, Jay Kelly, Marty Supreme, One Battle After Another, Sinners, Train Dreams and Wicked: For Good, plus a special award to Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just an Accident. The Iranian director was in the room right at the table next to mine. TV programs honored were Adolescence, Andor, Death by Lightning, The Diplomat, The Lowdown, The Pitt, Pluribus, Severance, The Studio and Task.
‘Frankenstein’ star Jacob Elordi
Pete Hammond/Deadline
Gazzale told me as I walked in that this was one of the starriest turnouts they’ve ever had. Among those at various tables dedicated to each honored achievement were Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Guillermo del Toro, Jacob Elordi, Jessie Buckley, Chloé Zhao, Adam Sandler, Laura Dern, Leonardo DiCaprio, Benicio Del Toro, Michael B. Jordan, Ryan Coogler, Joel Edgerton, Ariana Grande, Jeff Goldblum, Stephen Graham, Diego Luna, Ethan Hawke, Rhea Seehorn, Adam Scott, Seth Rogen, Vince Gilligan, Gwyneth Paltrow and Timothée Chalamet, to name just a few. I complimented Chalamet on his astounding performance in Marty Supreme, and mentioned I loved getting about 200 of those orange promotional ping pong balls from A24. My cat Weezie just discovered them.
Ariana Grande at the AFI Luncheon
Pete Hammond/Deadline
Just before producer David Heyman went over to chat with Ted Sarandos, whose Netflix made his film, Jay Kelly, I asked him about the search for the new James Bond. He and Amy Pascal are producing the next movie, and I had seen somewhere — maybe GMA? — that Callum Turner was zeroing in on the role but didn’t get that specific with him. “Is it true you have a Bond or just a rumor?” I asked. “Total rumor, don’t believe anything. There is no truth to it,” he said adamantly.
RELATED: Golden Globes Parties + Events Photos: Louis Vuitton & W Magazine, Golden Eve And The Red Carpet Rollout
I got a chance to catch up with Frank Marshall and AFI Board of Trustees Chair Kathleen Kennedy, who said they had just watched Spain’s official Oscar entry, Sirât, and were blown away by it. It has been shortlisted in five categories and could surprise Oscar nominations day. I saw it in Cannes and remember every tense moment of it. Marshall, a fine documentarian among other producing and directing talents, is in the midst of doing a docu on Barbra Streisand. He said it is going great, and he already has done a couple of interviews with her and has one more to go. Can’t wait for that one.
Going to an AFI lunch is like going to a high school reunion. Everyone has been on the same trail a good part of the year, and this was a chance to get together with one another. The energy and sheer joy about movies in this room was palpable. It always is.
CRUNCH TIME
It isn’t enough that the next three days are chock-full of awards events leading up to the Globes on Sunday, it also is just three days now before the 10,000-plus eligible members of the Motion Picture Academy start voting for their nominations that represent what this whole long season has really been all about. (Ballots go live Monday and are due back at 5 p.m. PT Friday, January 16.) Thus it is the last “push,” and that doesn’t just include today’s AFI Awards but also the BAFTA Tea on Saturday in the exact same room at the Four Seasons and where plenty of British and other Academy and BAFTA voters will get a lot of gladhanding from contenders who make this a must-stop. Around the corner at the Beverly Wilshire a couple of hours later, the AARP’s Movies for Grownups Awards tapes its televised PBS show, handing out trophies to contenders who have made it past age 50. And there is so much more.
RELATED: How To Watch The Golden Globes On TV And Online
Getty Images
Friday night Donna Langley hosts a “toast” to the season at Mother Wolf in Hollywood, and Neon will have a reception for all its international hopefuls at Sunset Tower. Saturday, before the British Tea gets underway, Film Independent will be celebrating its Indie Spirit nominees at The London, competing against a musical event in Beverly Hills at a piano store to highlight Steven Schwartz. He has two new Wicked songs hoping to nab two of the five Best Song Oscar slots. He’ll be performing there a bit too.
There are also events for everything from Hamnet to Zootopia 2 to Sinners to Frankenstein to Marty Supreme to, well, one contender after another. The guild nominees and the BAFTA longlista have narrowed the field to a degree, but with so many people in town and so little time to get them in front of Oscar voters, this is crunch time, and campaign consultants are wasting no time doing just that.
LEONARD MALTIN: THE CRITICS’ CRITIC
At the Critics Choice Awards Night Before party last Saturday, I was honored and thrilled to present CCA’s rarely awarded Critics Critic Award to the esteemed movie critic, film historian, author and true film fan — and my pal — Leonard Maltin. This was the first time the organization has done this in moer than two decades, the last recipient being the late great Joel Siegel, and it was about time we found someone in our midst who was so worthy. About 250 members came to the Fairmont Miramar in Santa Monica to toast Leonard, who said all the love was a bit overwhelming. I began working with him at Entertainment Tonight in the ’80s, and we have been BFFs ever since (my wife and I are godparents to his daughter Jessie).
Leonard Maltin and Pete Hammond
Courtesy
With granddaughter Daisy making many new friends in the room, Leonard said he was honored. “I’m blessed by good timing. I came up at a very good time,” he said. “People think that with the democratization of the internet — the elimination of the so-called gatekeepers — anyone can publish a book now, anyone can make a movie, put them online, write reviews. But I was fortunate to be of the generation when you sort of had to prove yourself, and you did have to please the gatekeepers, and that was the validation. But all that gives me purpose. It gives me reason to continue doing what I’m doing. If I can help make a good filmmaker’s work known to more people, I get great satisfaction from that.”
