Spike Lee Steals the Show at AFI Awards
By Maane Khatchatourian
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – There was wall-to-wall star power at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills on Friday, with Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, Mahershala Ali, and actors ranging from Elsie Fisher (age 15) to Angela Lansbury (age 93), but Spike Lee stole the show at the AFI Awards.
In opening remarks, AFI president-CEO Bob Gazzale said everyone was a winner, so he wouldn’t single out any individual, but after praising the AFI Conservatory, he noted that Lee was wearing an NYU cap, prompting Lee to stand up and say, “I applied to AFI, but I didn’t get in!” which got the biggest laugh of the afternoon.
Before the start of the luncheon, there was 90 minutes of power-schmoozing, as Alfonso Cuaron hugged Donna Langley, Ted Sarandos chatted with Sam Elliott, the teams behind “Black Panther” and “This Is Us” mingled, and FX execs accepted congrats for having a remarkable four shows represented in the honors.
The this year saluted 21 film and TV works. The mood is always relaxed, since there are no TV cameras, no acceptance speeches, no pressure, and no suspense — the honorees were announced on Dec. 4.
The setup has remained the same since the initial 2001 awards: Each honoree gets its own table (so the only competition may have been behind the scenes as studios and networks wrangled over who would rep each project).
A clip was shown from each, as a judge read the reasons for the panel recognition of a piece that was “culturally and artistically significant.”
The saluted films were “Black Panther,” “BlacKkKlansman,” “Eighth Grade,” “The Favourite,” “First Reformed,” “Green Book,” “If Beale Street Could Talk,” “Mary Poppins Returns,” “A Quiet Place,” and “A Star Is Born,” with a special award to “Roma,” since the prize-winner has to be American-made or distributed.
The TV honorees were “The Americans,” “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story,” “Atlanta,” “Barry,” “Better Call Saul,” “The Kominsky Method,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “Pose,” “Succession,” and “This Is Us.”
For the record, there were four TV shows from FX, and two apiece for A24, HBO, and Netflix.
AFI Awards are chosen by special committees of industry workers, journalists, and educators. They don’t have strict rules about eligibility for TV series: The committee judges on if the show had a notable year, whether it’s new or not. Repeats this year were “The Americans,” “Better Call Saul,” and “This Is Us.” But it’s not a stacked deck: The juries change each year.