The 2026 AARP Movies for Grownups Award was full of comedic, heartfelt and inspiring speeches from Adam Sandler, Guillermo del Toro and more Hollywood talent.
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. − For Adam Sandler, growing old is definitely a laughing matter.
After receiving a heartfelt introduction from his longtime friend, Henry Winkler, 80, Sandler stepped up to the stage at the AARP’s Movies for Grownups Awards on Saturday, Jan. 10, to accept his Career Achievement honor. Sandler kicked off his speech in his trademark comedic voice by first giving a shoutout to “my silver hair daddies and salt-and-pepper mommas.”
“The Fonz is in the house!” quipped Sandler, 59. “A lot of people said to me, Sandman, I think the AARP Award means that you’re old now.’ To that I say, ‘It’s not because of this award, I got 10 other reasons … “
“The other day, I had to swallow a Viagra just to take a piss,” Sandler said to an eruption of laughter from the audience as he held a printed laundry list of reasons why he’s actually old. “No. 2, when I sit down it sounds like a semi-truck driving over a family of lobsters. No. 3, my tongue only has one taste bud left [and] everything I eat now tastes like oatmeal except oatmeal, which tastes like Vaseline. No. 4, the font on my phone is so big [that] my texts can be read by anyone with a window seat on a Delta flight.”
After a few minutes of belly laughs from attendees, including George Clooney, Paul Mescal and Winkler, Sandler thanked his family for “supporting my goofiness for all these years, I love you.”
“Thank you to my lovely wife for staying with me even though no part of my body is where it used to be,” he continued. “Thank you to my two gorgeous children for not laughing every time I walk down the hallway shirtless. They do laugh, by the way, and may I say to everyone in this room, I don’t know how much time I have left. Sixty years, 70, 80 tops. Maybe 90 if I start working out and taking creatine. And I promise to every one of you here tonight I will make at least 50 more movies before I am dead, and at least 25 of them will be good.”
Before hitting the red carpet at the Beverly Wilshire, A Four Seasons Hotel, Sandler and his wife Jackie − along with other A-listers from the night − made their way over from the BAFTA Tea Party a few miles away at the other Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills.
Read on for more notable speeches of the night from the AARP’s Movies for Grownups Awards, including “Frankenstein” director Guillermo del Toro and “Sinners” actor Delroy Lindo.
Guillermo del Toro on the beauty of directing: ‘You don’t have to explain it’
After “Frankenstein” star Jacob Elordi introduced him onstage to receive the award for best director for the Netflix adaptation of Mary Shelley’s gothic novel, the Mexican filmmaker joked that “Jacob and I are going to star in a remake of ‘Twins’ this year,” poking fun at their height difference.
Then, del Toro, known for classics such as “Hellboy” and “Pan’s Labyrinth,” gave a resonant speech about the art of directing. “What is directing? That’s very hard to explain for the layman or the professional. When I was younger, my kids used to say, ‘Dad, your job is not hard at all. You say action and cut, and everybody does everything else,” the 61 year old said.
“But I think that directing is a little bit like the force of gravity. You don’t have to explain it. You don’t have to explain how it works, but everybody knows when it’s there. And everybody knows when it’s not.”
“The second beauty of directing is to understand a simple truth: We are all born with one song to sing, that’s it,” he said. “We spend the rest of our lives, once we find it, trying to sing it better and better every time. For me, as a young man of 11 years, I became very clear that ‘Frankenstein’ was that song for me … I tried to give it my all, I tried to give it the hurt and the beauty that it needed.”
AARP Award winner Delroy Lindo on the impact ‘Sinners’ will have for ‘years to come’ in Hollywood, culture
Critics, viewers and Hollywood directors alike can’t stop singing the praises of Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners,” and the film’s cast is no different.
At the AARP awards, “Sinners” actor Delroy Lindo, who plays a Blues musician named Delta Slim, took home the honor for best supporting actor and reflected on his gratitude to Coogler and the impact his filmmaking will have for generations to come.
“It’s my belief that audiences, many years into the future, will be talking about ‘Sinners’ and the remarkable achievement of this film and talking about Ryan Coogler for many, many, many years to come,” the 73 year old said. “Not only in terms of the enjoyment that audiences got from the film, but the impact that this film has and will have on cinematic culture … and the fact that I could be part of that, I don’t have the words to express my gratitude.”
The Movies For Grownups Awards will be broadcast by Great Performances on Sunday, Feb. 22, at 7 p.m. on PBS.
