Star Wars: The Force Awakens has made the American Film Institute’s list of the top 10 movies of the year. The other film honorees for the 2015 AFI Awards include The Big Short, Bridge of Spies, Carol, Inside Out, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Martian, Room, Spotlight and Straight Outta Compton.
It’s the first appearance Star Wars has had on any of the year-end awards lists, since Disney did not screen the film for critics and other awards groups in advance of its Dec. 14 world premiere. But the AFI postponed its awards meeting from earlier in the month, so its jurors would have a chance to consider Star Wars before making their decision.
AFI also announced the 10 TV shows being honored, which included new series Mr. Robot, Unreal and Aziz Ansari’s Master of None. The other honorees are The Americans, Better Call Saul, Black-ish, Empire, Fargo, Game of Thrones and Homeland.
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AMC’s Mad Men, which wrapped up its final season in 2015, received the AFI Special Award, “acknowledging its landmark contributions to America’s cultural legacy across nine years.” The hit series has earned more honors than any other show in the history of the AFI Awards.
“Since AFI’s founding in the White House Rose Garden 50 years ago, its mandate has been to celebrate our nation’s storytellers,” said AFI president and CEO Bob Gazzale. “This is the goal of AFI Awards — to bring together our community as colleagues, not competitors, and to shine a proper light on their collective efforts to entertain and enlighten the world.”
The honorees, chosen by film and TV juries chaired by producers and AFI board of trustees vice chairs Tom Pollock (for film) and Richard Frank (for TV), will be celebrated at a private luncheon in Los Angeles on Jan. 8.
The complete list of honorees is below:
AFI MOVIES OF THE YEAR
The Big Short
Bridge of Spies
Carol
Inside Out
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
Room
Spotlight
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Straight Outta Compton
AFI TV PROGRAMS OF THE YEAR
The Americans
Better Call Saul
Black-ish
Empire
Fargo
Game of Thrones
Homeland
Master of None
Mr. Robot
Unreal
AFI SPECIAL AWARD
Mad Men