The American Film Institute (AFI) will confer AFI Conservatory Doctorate of Fine Arts degrees honoris causa upon Academy Award-winning actor/director Jodie Foster and Academy Award-winning production designer Dean Tavoularis. They will be recognized for their contributions to the art of the moving image during the AFI Conservatory’s commencement ceremony on June 11, 2018, at the historic TCL Chinese Theatre.
Foster and Tavoularis join an esteemed group of distinguished past Honorary Degree recipients, including Robert Altman, Maya Angelou, Saul Bass, Kathryn Bigelow, Mel Brooks, Carol Burnett, Anne V. Coates, Clint Eastwood, Roger Ebert, Nora Ephron, James Earl Jones, Lawrence Kasdan, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Kathleen Kennedy, Angela Lansbury, John Lasseter, Spike Lee, David Lynch, Helen Mirren, Rita Moreno, Quentin Tarantino, Robert Towne, Cicely Tyson, Haskell Wexler and John Williams. See the full list here.
Jodie Foster
Actor, director, producer and icon Jodie Foster has more than 100 screen credits to her name, including an Academy Award® nomination at age 14 for her role in Martin Scorcese’s TAXI DRIVER (1976), and two Academy Award® wins — for her performance as a sexual assault survivor seeking justice in THE ACCUSED (1988), and for her career-defining role as FBI Agent Clarice Starling in Jonathan Demme’s THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1991). She also received an Oscar® nomination for NELL (1994), which she co-produced.
As an actress, her work includes films as vast and varied as TOM SAWYER (1973), ALICE DOESN’T LIVE HERE ANYMORE (1974), BUGSY MALONE (1976), FREAKY FRIDAY (1976), FOXES (1980), MAVERICK (1994), CONTACT (1997), PANIC ROOM (2002), A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT (2004), FLIGHTPLAN (2005), INSIDE MAN (2006), THE BRAVE ONE (2007), CARNAGE (2011) and ELYSIUM (2013), among others. She next stars in HOTEL ARTEMIS (2018).
Her work as a director and producer — which has earned multiple Primetime Emmy® and Directors Guild of America Award nominations — includes LITTLE MAN TATE (1991), HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS (1995), THE BEAVER (2011) and MONEY MONSTER (2016), as well as standout episodes of prestige TV series such as BLACK MIRROR, HOUSE OF CARDS and ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK.
Dean Tavoularis
Dean Tavoularis has collaborated with legendary filmmakers Michelangelo Antonioni, Arthur Penn, Warren Beatty and Roman Polanski to create the iconic and disparate worlds of ZABRISKIE POINT (1970), BONNIE AND CLYDE (1967), BULWORTH (1998) and THE NINTH GATE (1999), respectively — but it is his work with legendary filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola that truly defines his exemplary career as a production designer.
His prolific partnership with Coppola began with THE GODFATHER (1972), followed by THE CONVERSATION (1974) and THE GODFATHER PART II (1974), which earned him the Academy Award® for Best Art Direction. His work continued with Coppola on APOCALYPSE NOW (1979), TUCKER: THE MAN AND HIS DREAM (1988) and THE GODFATHER PART III (1990) — all of which earned Tavoularis Oscar® nominations — as well as ONE FROM THE HEART (1981), THE OUTSIDERS (1983), RUMBLE FISH (1983) and PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED (1986).
Tavoularis also received an Oscar® nomination for William Friedkin’s THE BRINK’S JOB (1978). Additional credits include THE ESCAPE ARTIST (1982), THE PARENT TRAP (1998) and CARNAGE (2011). He received the prestigious Art Directors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007.