AFI Awards Lunch: ‘Emilia Pérez’ Gets a Warm Reception but ‘Wicked’ Brings the House Down

The American Film Institute’s annual lunch celebrating the top 10 films and TV shows of the year took place on Thursday after a month-long delay because of the Los Angeles wildfires, serving as the kickoff to a restarted awards season that has been dormant when it comes to events though far from dormant when it comes to news.

And while there was no outright talk about the controversy that has rocked awards season for the past week, the AFI Awards lunch could be the beginning of a sad final month for “Emilia Pérez,” the film that seemed to be an Oscar Best Picture frontrunner until the disclosure of past racist and anti-Muslim tweets from star Kara Sofía Gascón threatened to wreck its campaign.

Or it could be the beginning of a comeback for the Netflix film, which was represented at the lunch by director Jacques Audiard, stars Zoe Saldaña, Edgar Ramirez and Adriana Paz and composers/songwriters Clément Ducol and Camille. People associated with the film had a mantra of sorts: “There’s still a lot of affection for this film. There’s time left to turn things around.”

The director of another film in contention, though, shook his head when he thought about the barrage of social-media campaigns – not just against Gascón and her movie, but also over things like the use of AI in “The Brutalist.”

“It’s like being inside a hornet’s nest,” he said. “When you make a movie that you hope is going to entertain people, you don’t think about stuff like this happening.”

With Oscar voting beginning in less than a week, on Feb. 11, and ending just 7 days later on Feb. 18, the time for turnarounds is in fact somewhat limited. But “Emilia Pérez” received a nice round of applause when it was named as one of the AFI’s top 10 films of 2024, and even bigger cheers after a film clip that spotlighted Saldaña but also included some shots of Gascón.

Its reception was essentially on par with the ones for “Anora,” “A Complete Unknown,” “Conclave,” “Dune: Part Two” and most of the other films on AFI’s top 10, all of whom were received warmly in a room whose 25 tables included one for each of the 10 top films, one for each of the 10 TV shows and one for “Baby Reindeer,” which received a special award because it wasn’t eligible for the regular AFI honors, which are reserved for American productions.

For a while, it seemed as if the biggest reception was going to go to the two films that weren’t nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, Jesse Eisenberg’s “A Real Pain” and Greg Kwedar’s “Sing Sing,” which both got rousing ovations after their very well-chosen clips.

But then the AFI ended the awards portion of the afternoon by playing a hefty chunk of the showstopping song “Defying Gravity” that serves as the climax to “Wicked,” which did what it was built to do and brought the house down.

Still, the AFI Awards lunch isn’t about attaching an applause meter to the clips and using that to take the measure of awards season. It was designed as a collegial event, all about celebration rather than competition. “I don’t know if anyone told you, but you won,” AFI President and CEO Bob Gazale said in his introduction. “There’s no envelopes, there’s no speeches, there’s no sweat.”

There was also a lot of mingling before and after the presentation: Jesse Eisenberg and Ralph Fiennes over here, Zoe Saldana and Kristen Bell over there, Adrien Brody and Jason Segel on one side of the room, “Nickel Boys” producers Jeremy Kleiner and Dede Gardner with “Conclave” director Edward Berger on another side, and everybody with the Wizard of “Wicked,” Jeff Goldblum, resplendent in striped orange jacket and shades.

In a room filled with stars, though, the person who received the most plaudits may have been Los Angeles firefighter Timmy Larson, who got a seat in the room and a standing ovation when he was introduced.   

There was also some sentiment in an opening tribute to the late David Lynch, a student in AFI’s first class and one of the most celebrated of its alumni. The presentation opened with a video of him extolling the virtues of the AFI Conservatory and then saying, “I love AFI.” The screen faded to black and then to a message from AFI: “We love you too, David, and always will.”

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