On a night saluting the independence and go-for-broke cinematic life of Francis Ford Coppola, Al Pacino perhaps summed up why the legendary filmmaker has opted out of accepting many honors over the decades by quoting Coppola himself who once said,

Former AFI Life Achievement Award recipients like Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, and Morgan Freeman celebrated risk-taking director Francis Ford Coppola.

Steven Spielberg and George Lucas were among those who presented this year's AFI Life Achievement Award to Francis Ford Coppola.