Honorees to be Celebrated at Private Luncheon on January 9, 2026
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, Los Angeles, CA, December 4, 2025 – The American Film Institute (AFI) announced today the AFI AWARDS 2025 honorees. The recipients include 10 outstanding motion pictures and 10 outstanding television programs deemed culturally and artistically representative of this year’s most significant achievements in the art of the moving image.
AFI MOTION PICTURES OF THE YEAR
AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH
BUGONIA
FRANKENSTEIN
HAMNET
JAY KELLY
MARTY SUPREME
ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER
SINNERS
TRAIN DREAMS
WICKED: FOR GOOD
AFI TELEVISION PROGRAMS OF THE YEAR
ADOLESCENCE
ANDOR
DEATH BY LIGHTNING
THE DIPLOMAT
THE LOWDOWN
THE PITT
PLUR1BUS
SEVERANCE
THE STUDIO
TASK
AFI SPECIAL AWARD
IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT
“For more than a quarter of a century, AFI AWARDS has held the flag high for community without competition,” said Bob Gazzale, AFI President & CEO. “It is AFI’s honor to celebrate these creative ensembles as one, as together they have proved the power of art in challenging times.”
Honorees will gather and be recognized on Friday, January 9, 2026, at the annual AFI AWARDS private luncheon at the Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills — an event favored by the entertainment community for its informal intimacy and its inclusive acknowledgement of excellence.
FIJI Water is returning as the Official Water Sponsor for the event and will keep luncheon honorees and attendees hydrated with Earth’s Finest, iconic 500mL bottles made from 100% recycled material (rPET).
AFI AWARDS celebrates film and television arts’ collaborative nature and is the only national program that honors creative teams as a whole, recognizing those in front of and behind the camera. All of the honored works advance the art of the moving image, inspire audiences and artists alike and enhance the rich cultural heritage of America’s art form. When placed in a historical context, these stories provide a complex and rich visual record of our modern world.
AFI AWARDS selections are made through a jury process where AFI Trustees, artists, critics and scholars determine the year’s most outstanding achievements and provide artistic and cultural context for the selection of each honoree.
This year’s juries — one for motion pictures and one for television — included artists Lily Gladstone, Lauren LeFranc, Patton Oswalt and Thomas Schlamme; scholars Mark Harris, Leonard Maltin and more from Syracuse University, the University of Southern California, the University of California, Los Angeles and the University of California, Santa Cruz; members of the AFI Board of Trustees; critics Ann Hornaday, Janet Maslin, Peter Travers and others from TV Guide, Vanity Fair and more. The juries were chaired by AFI Board of Trustees member Jeanine Basinger (Chair Emerita and Founder of the Film Studies Department, Wesleyan University) and AFI Board of Trustees Vice Chair Richard Frank (former Chairman of Walt Disney Television, President of Walt Disney Studios, President of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences).
The 2025 recipients join a distinguished group of previous AFI AWARDS honorees whose works define the art form and contribute to our rich cultural legacy. View past AFI AWARDS honorees.
About the American Film Institute (AFI)
The American Film Institute (AFI) is a nonprofit organization with a mandate to champion the moving image as an art form. Established in 1967, AFI launched the first comprehensive history of American film and sparked the movement for film preservation in the United States. In 1969, AFI opened the doors of the AFI Conservatory, a graduate-level program to train narrative filmmakers. The Conservatory, which counts Deniese Davis, Affonso Gonçalves, Susannah Grant, Matthew Libatique, David Lynch, Melina Matsoukas and Rachel Morrison as Alumni, is ranked as one of the top film schools in America. AFI’s enduring traditions include the AFI Life Achievement Award, which honors the masters for work that has stood the test of time; AFI AWARDS, which celebrates the creative ensembles of the most outstanding screen stories of the year; and scholarly efforts such as the AFI Catalog of Feature Films and the AFI Archive that preserve film history for future generations. AFI exhibition programs include AFI FEST Presented by Canva and year-round exhibition at the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center in Maryland. AFI Movie Club is a destination for movie lovers from around the world to celebrate and engage with the art form every day. Other pioneering programs include workshops aimed at increasing diversity in the storytelling community, including AFI DWW+ and the AFI Cinematography Intensive Workshop. Read about all of these programs and more at AFI.com and follow us on social media at Facebook.com/AmericanFilmInstitute, YouTube.com/AFI, X.com/AmericanFilm, TikTok/@AmericanFilmInstitute and Instagram.com/AmericanFilmInstitute.
About FIJI Water
FIJI® Water is a natural artesian water bottled at the source in Viti Levu (Fiji islands). With its iconic square bottle, soft mouthfeel and more than double the electrolytes compared to the other two top premium bottled water brands, FIJI Water is the No. 1 premium imported bottled water in the United States. FIJI Water has a perfectly balanced 7.7pH. FIJI Water is available in a variety of sizes, including 330mL, 500mL, 700mL, 700mL Sports Cap, 1L, and 1.5L. As of 2022, FIJI Water’s best-selling 500mL and 330mL bottles have transitioned to 100% recycled plastic (rPET) – bottle only. Since 2007, the FIJI Water Foundation has helped to preserve and protect the Sovi Basin and improve the lives of native Fijians. To discover Earth’s Finest Water®, please visit www.fijiwater.com, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Instagram. To learn more about our Corporate Social Responsibility work, visit https://csr.wonderful.com/.
Press contact:
American Film Institute
Shari Mesulam, [email protected]
