Francis Ford Coppola called his recent American Film Institute tribute a personal “homecoming.” Fellow directors Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Spike Lee and Ron Howard were among those honoring the iconic writer-director.

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

Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Morgan Freeman, Harrison Ford, Adam Driver and Spike Lee were among the A-listers on hand to salute the filmmaker at Saturday's event.