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

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,

George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Robert De Niro, Harrison Ford, Morgan Freeman, Dustin Hoffman, Ron Howard, Spike Lee and Al Pacino had something to say about it