The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1965 when President Lyndon Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act. The American Film Institute focuses on training through hands-on experience with established figures, as well as on preserving old film, which is subject to degradation of its film stock. Contrary to its title, AFI does not focus exclusively on film, but also on television and video. The American Film Institute can be found online at http://www.afi.com/. In 1973 it established the Life Achievement Award. Recipients have been:
- 1973 John Ford
- 1974 James Cagney
- 1975 Orson Welles
- 1976 William Wyler
- 1977 Bette Davis
- 1978 Henry Fonda
- 1979 Alfred Hitchcock
- 1980 James Stewart
- 1981 Fred Astaire
- 1982 Frank Capra
- 1983 John Huston
- 1984 Lillian Gish
- 1985 Gene Kelly
- 1986 Billy Wilder
- 1987 Barbara Stanwyck
- 1988 Jack Lemmon
- 1989 Gregory Peck
- 1990 David Lean
- 1991 Kirk Douglas
- 1992 Sidney Poitier
- 1993 Elizabeth Taylor
- 1994 Jack Nicholson
- 1995 Steven Spielberg
- 1996 Clint Eastwood
- 1997 Martin Scorsese
- 1998 Robert Wise
- 1999 Dustin Hoffman
- 2000 Harrison Ford
- 2001 Barbra Streisand
- 2002 Tom Hanks
- 2003 Robert De Niro