Ahead of a busy weekend on the awards circuit — which will see star-studded audiences at Sunday’s Critics Choice Awards and Monday’s long-awaited Emmy Awards — some of the biggest names in Hollywood gathered on Friday to celebrate the American Film Institute’s picks for the top 10 films and television shows of 2023.
A-list names crowded the ballroom at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills, where films American Fiction, Barbie, The Holdovers, Killers of the Flower Moon, Maestro, May December, Oppenheimer, Past Lives, Poor Things and Spider-Man: Across the Universe were honored along with TV shows Abbott Elementary, The Bear, Beef, Jury Duty, The Last of Us, The Morning Show, Only Murders in the Building, Poker Face, Reservation Dogs and Succession.
Creatives, directors and stars of those projects were in attendance, including American Fiction‘s Cord Jefferson, Jeffrey Wright, Sterling K. Brown and Erika Alexander; Barbie‘s Greta Gerwig, Margot Robbie and America Ferrera; The Holdovers‘ Alexander Payne, Paul Giamatti and Da’Vine Joy Randolph; Killers of the Flower Moon‘s Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone; Maestro‘s Bradley Cooper and Carey Mulligan; May December‘s Todd Haynes, Natalie Portman, Julianne Moore and Charles Melton; Oppenheimer‘s Christopher Nolan, Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt and Robert Downey Jr.; Poor Things‘ Yorgos Lanthimos, Emma Stone and Willem Dafoe.
On the TV side, Abbott Elementary‘s Quinta Brunson; The Bear‘s Jeremy Allen White and Ayo Edebiri; Beef‘s Ali Wong and Steven Yeun; The Last of Us‘ Pedro Pascal, Bella Ramsey and Nick Offerman; The Morning Show‘s Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Beharie and Karen Pittman; Only Murders in the Building‘s Steve Martin, Martin Short, Meryl Streep, Selena Gomez and Michael Cyril Creighton; and Succession‘s Sarah Snook and Kieran Culkin came out to celebrate.
Also mingling in the room were the industry’s top executives, including Disney’s Bob Iger and Dana Walden, Warner Bros. Discovery’s David Zaslav, Netflix’s Ted Sarandos, WB TV’s Channing Dungey, FX’s John Landgraf, Universal’s Donna Langley, Sony’s Tom Rothman, Apple’s Tim Cook and Amazon’s Jennifer Salke.
Despite the immense talent in the room, many of whom will be vying against each other for Oscar nominations (and, some, Emmys), the AFI Awards are notably non-competitive. “We tell you you’re great, and why,” said AFI CEO Bob Gazzale in his introductory remarks. “It’s community. It’s not competition.”
Speaking of that community, Gazzale announced that 30 AFI graduates were in the room, including the first woman accepted into the cinematography program: Mimi Leder, who was honored as part of the creative team behind The Morning Show.
It was also announced that AFI vice chair Richard Frank made a multi-million dollar pledge in the name of all the honorees over the next decade, which will be awarded as scholarships to fellows studying at the AFI conservatory.
Gazzale also noted that this year marked the 50th anniversary of the founding of the AFI directing workshop for women. While introducing Oscar, Emmy and Tony winner Ellen Burstyn, who gave the closing benediction for the ceremony, Gazzale said that following her role in the landmark film The Exorcist in 1973, Burstyn applied for the directing workshop: “Always reaching for more.”
The 91-year-old Burstyn, who received two standing ovations from the audience, was tearful when stepping up to the podium. “This idea of honoring 10 movies and 10 television shows and just leaving it at that — not having five people nominated, invited to a big gala event, one person wins and four losers go home … ” said Burstyn, evoking great laughter from the audience. “I’ve been on both ends of that stick. It’s not fun! This is much better.”
Burstyn also evoked her early days as an actress in the theater: “I remember this day when I was onstage, in the middle of a scene, and all of a sudden I thought, ‘What are you doing?’” she said. The next day, she added, she went to a bookstore and bought a history of theater. “On the first page, it said the first time someone stood up around the campfire and told the story of the tribe to the tribe. I thought, ‘Ah, that’s what we do.’ We tell the stories of the tribe, to the tribe.”
Burstyn closed her remarks with a similar sentiment. “Seeing the TV shows and movies and people in this room,” she said. “I feel so blessed of this amazing tribe. And if I may assume the voice of the tribe, thank you all for doing what you do, being who you are and coming together and celebrating the best of us without making it be a competition.”