Inside the Starry AFI Awards Luncheon: “A Great Place to Get a Job”

There’s a reason why the AFI Awards draw pretty much every A-lister on its annual honor roll: The intimate private luncheon, which took place this year at the Four Seasons, is the most celebratory occasion on the long, windy Oscars circuit, with 10 films and TV shows apiece all named winners—and no losers in sight. This is especially useful—maybe, even ironic—when the event falls in the thick of Oscar nominations voting and campaigning is at its most intense. So everyone in attendance is a winner, yes—and also working very hard to make the final cut with the Academy.

Entrances started before noon on a chilly, sunny Friday in Beverly Hills, and pretty quickly you could play mix and match with different honorees catching up. I walked in to find May December’s Natalie Portman posing with the Reservation Dogs cast just before the red carpet. Beef’s Steven Yeun approvingly exclaimed at The Last of Us’s Pedro Pascal in another striking wardrobe choice. Oppenheimer’s Robert Downey Jr. was among the first to make his way into the ballroom, where he moved toward the front of the stage with American Fiction’s Erika Alexander.

I caught up with Maestro’s Carey Mulligan at one point as the crowd started filling out, and she quipped, “This is a great place to get a job.” And indeed, think of a writer or director in the running for Emmys and Oscars right now, and they were probably within a quarter-mile radius. Some powerful executives, too. Disney chief Bob Iger was busy making the rounds, pulling aside The Bear’s Ayo Edebiri and Abbott Elementary’s Quinta Brunson for a chat, and later introducing himself at Reservation Dogs’ table.

The luncheon’s hour-plus of mingling precedes a program in which each of the 20 honored programs is recognized individually, with words of commendation and a selected clip. After the last of the crowd filed in (a rushing group that included Leonardo DiCaprio) TV went first, front loaded (for alphabetical reasons) with comedies that played great in the room, especially Jury Duty, the freshman breakout going into Monday’s Emmys as an underdog hopeful. Succession appropriately capped this part of the ceremony, with the best scene from its series finale reminding that it’ll likely get a wide farewell embrace from the Television Academy in a few days.

Given the star wattage in the room—in the minutes before we got going, there was Emma Stone with Charles Melton; Mulligan with Jennifer Aniston; Greta Gerwig with Steven Spielberg; Ramy Youssef with Ali Wong; and Jeremy Allen White hugging Celine Song—here was also a great chance for a last bit of subtle campaigning. What a brilliant stroke for Barbie, for instance, to play America Ferrera’s entire famed monologue before a crowd of voters; that clip got the biggest applause of the day, and she’s vying for a spot in the supporting actress five. AFI tends to match Oscar rather closely, and of its 10, those most on the outside for best picture, May December and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, were very well-represented inside, and met enthusiastic reactions.