Francis Ford Coppola receives lifetime achievement Oscar

LONDON - Film director/producer Francis Ford Coppola has been awarded a lifetime achievement Oscar, during a Los Angeles ceremony.

Many A-list stars were present to see Coppola, 71, get the Irving Thalberg Memorial Award, which was presented to him by producer George Lucas.

“I have a great love of the original Hollywood tradition and admiration for the tradition of Irving Thalberg,” the BBC quoted Coppola as saying as he accepted the prize.

Actor Robert DeNiro paid tribute to Coppola, calling him “an inspiration and one of my biggest influences”, and Lucas said Coppola is “my big brother and my mentor”.

“He taught me how to write. He taught me how to direct. He actually personified a whole era of the American film industry. He was our leader. He was our inspiration,” Lucas stated.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science said Coppola’s Irving Thalberg Memorial Award was given to “a creative producer whose body of work reflects a consistently high quality of motion picture production”. (ANI)