The American Film Institute celebrated the 2025 AFI Awards honourees at an exclusive invitation-only luncheon at the Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills on Friday (9 January).
Celebrating “film and television arts’ collaborative nature”, the AFI Awards is the “only national programme that honours creative teams as a whole” in the US, recognising those in front of and behind the camera.
Among the films celebrated were Sinners, with DP Autumn Durald Arkapaw ASC in attendance on the day, and Train Dreams, whose cinematographer Adolpho Veloso ABC AIP has already scooped Best Cinematography at the Critics Choice Awards.
Carol Burnett delivered the annual benediction in celebration of the honourees’ remarkable achievements to close the event and shared: “I’ve never lost the deep respect and love that I have for all the stories we tell through cinema and television and by all of those behind and in front of the camera.
“Creative collaboration has always remained at the heart of our work, and AFI brings us all together. The world is a better place for having heard your voices.”
Alongside Arkapaw, special guests in attendance included Ryan Coogler, Leonardo DiCaprio, Gwyneth Paltrow, Steven Spielberg, Teyana Taylor and Chloé Zhao.
The AFI Awards luncheon also featured the Institute’s signature March of Time montage – “a unique cross-section of cinematic milestones from decades past, which places the motion picture and television programme honourees into a historical context and provides a perspective on the evolution of the narrative arts”, the AFI said.
At the event, the AFI revealed its official rationales for all 21 honourees, providing the “cultural and artistic context to mark these outstanding creative endeavors as the year’s notable milestones”.
“All the honoured works advance the art of the moving image, inspire audiences and artists alike and enhance the rich cultural heritage of America’s art form,” the AFI concluded.
The films honoured were:
- Avatar: Fire and Ash
- Bugonia
- Frankenstein
- Hamnet
- Jay Kelly
- Marty Supreme
- One Battle After Another
- Sinners
- Train Dreams
- Wicked: For Good
Meanwhile, the Television Programmes of the Year honourees were:
- Adolescence
- Andor
- Death by Lightning
- The Diplomat
- The Lowdown
- The Pitt
- Plur1bus
- Severance
- The Studio
- Task
