AFI honourees toast each other ahead of Golden Globe Awards

The Golden Globes will be handed out on Sunday, but many nominees got a practice run through the awards process on Friday at the American Film Institute’s annual luncheon.

Like the Globes, the AFI Awards celebrate outstanding work in film and television. Unlike the Globes, though, there is no competition: All 11 films and 10 TV shows recognised by AFI are considered winners.

AFI president Bob Gazzale said nothing was expected of the honourees other than to “embrace and applaud each other as colleagues.”

With no television cameras and no agenda other than to schmooze and nosh, guests happily obliged.

Sarah Paulson, an Emmy winner and Golden Globe nominee for her portrayal of Marcia Clark in The People vs OJ Simpson: American Crime Story, chatted with Atlanta creator and star Donald Glover, whose show and performance are up for awards on Sunday.

AFI also recognised TV’s Veep, Game of Thrones, The Crown, Stranger Things, and This Is Us — all Golden Globe nominees — along with Better Call Saul, The Americans and The Night Of.

John Lithgow, a Golden Globe nominee for The Crown, hung around with Jeff Bridges, who’s nominated for his supporting role in Hell or High Water.

Former flames and fellow Globe nominees Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield socialised a bit before lunch. Garfield is nominated on Sunday for his performance in Mel Gibson’s Hacksaw Ridge; Stone is a lead actress nominee for her work in Damien Chazelle’s La La Land. AFI recognised both films on Friday. Gibson and Chazelle are also Globe nominees for best director.

Chazelle sat between his two leads, Stone and Ryan Gosling, on Friday. Gosling, also a Golden Globe nominee, quietly left the Four Seasons Hotel ballroom before La La Land was recognised onstage.

AFI’s other film winners included Golden Globe nominees Hell or High Water, Moonlight, Manchester By the Sea and Zootopia, as well as Sully, Silence, Fences and Arrival. The documentary OJ: Made in America received a special award.

AFI officials praised and showed clips from each honoured production, but there were no acceptance speeches. Instead, producers, directors and stars of the winning films and shows sat with each other and cheered from their tables. Each received a framed certificate.

Mahershala Ali and Naomie Harris, both up for Golden Globes for their supporting roles in Moonlight, walked side by side to claim theirs.

The only star to take the stage was Fences director and star Denzel Washington, whom Gazzale introduced as “someone greater than an icon in the community.” Gazzale also noted that Washington’s son, Malcolm, recently graduated from the AFI Conservatory.

“I’m hoping that one day he hires me,” Washington quipped after being welcomed with a standing ovation.

But when it came to talking about Fences, he was almost speechless.

“It’s just a privilege, a responsibility, a duty and an honour to help in some small way to bring August Wilson’s genius to the screen,” Washington said. “I don’t like to use the word proud, but proud of it, and humbled by it all.”