AFI Degrees To Mel Brooks & David Lynch
BY THE DEADLINE TEAM | Tuesday May 29, 2012 @ 6:33pm PDTEmail This
LOS ANGELES, CA, May 29, 2012 – The American Film Institute (AFI) announced it will confer Doctorate of Fine Arts degrees honoris causa upon American comedy icon Mel Brooks and celebrated surrealist David Lynch for “contribution of distinction to the art of the moving image” during AFI Conservatory commencement 2012 at Hollywood’s landmark Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. Both artists worked together on the Academy Award winning THE ELEPHANT MAN (1980), with Lynch as director and screenwriter and Brooks as executive producer. Previous recipients of the AFI Honorary Degree include Robert Altman, Maya Angelou, Clint Eastwood, Roger Ebert, James Earl Jones, Nora Ephron, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Kathleen Kennedy, John Lasseter, Spike Lee, Helen Mirren, Haskell Wexler and John Williams.
(Photos: Getty Images)
David Lynch is also a proud AFI alum…
AFI is an institution without a doctorate/P.hd program. What’s with the honorary doctorate if there are no real AFI doctorates? And since David Lynch is an actual AFI alum, why does he need an honorary degree?
be that as it may, Lynch made one heck of an AFI film back in the day. congrats for whatever they are calling the award.