Al Pacino and Robert De Niro show their support for The Godfather at the Tribeca Festival

Whether it’s fans, critics, actors, or filmmakers, rarely has a film received similar responses from people unanimous about its brilliance.

And that’s exactly what has happened in the 50 years since Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather premiered in American cinemas

In honor of the 50th anniversary, lead actor Al Pacino, who later played the head of the Corleone family, Michael Corleone, and Robert De Niro, who portrayed the young version of his father, Vito Corleone in the sequel, attended a special tribute and screening Tribeca Festival in NYC.

The Tribeca Festival, an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Productions and co-founded by De Niro, featured a.o Restoration of the film on Thursday evening.

Ahead of the screening at the United Palace, Pacino sat down onstage with Michael Hainey to talk about the film, which received 10 Oscar nominations, and its lasting impact.

At the 45th Academy Awards in 1973, the legendary crime thriller won the coveted Best Picture award, along with Best Actor (Marlon Brando) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola).

In those five decades since its release, the film has received universal acclaim from critics and audiences alike, with praise for the performances, particularly Brando, Pacino, James Caan and Robert Duvall, Coppola’s direction, Coppola and Puzo’s screenplay, cinematography, editing, and the music score.

Dressed in all black, consisting of a blazer, pants, t-shirt, scarf and sneakers, 82-year-old Pacino opened up about his life as an actor before filming The Godfather and its aftermath.

He was just 31 and had only one film on his resume when Coppola approached him about playing Michael Corleone. The character’s arc is about as good as it gets for an actor: from shy son and reluctant family misfit who served his country honorably in World War II, to unsuspecting hitman and finally to ruthless mafia boss of the Corleone family.

It became the highest-grossing film of 1972 and for a time was the highest-grossing film ever made, grossing between $246 and $287 million at the box office.

As part of the festival’s special screening, De Niro joined Pacino on the red carpet as he played such a pivotal role as the younger Vito Corleone in The Godfather Part II (1974).

The two iconic actors stood side by side for a moment as photographers snapped away.

De Niro, who is usually apprehensive and uncomfortable when it comes to media events like this, smiled several times while dressed casually in black pants with a navy blazer over a light blue top.

At times, both stars could be seen laughing and beaming as they chatted under the spotlights of the red carpet.

Although not commercially surpassing the original film, The Godfather II (1974) became Paramount Pictures’ top-grossing film of 1974, eventually grossing $93 million at the worldwide box office on a budget of $13 million.

It served as both a sequel and prequel to The Godfather (1972), weaving between the original film’s aftermath and backstory, how and why Vito Corleone immigrated to the United States from Sicily, and his rise as the founder of his family business in NYC.

The film was nominated for eleven Oscars, winning six of them, including Best Picture, which was a premiere for a sequel, as well as Best Director for Coppola, and Best Supporting Actor for De Niro, who spoke mostly Italian throughout his performance with subtitles.

Though not nearly as acclaimed as its two predecessors, The Godfather Part III (1990) earned seven Academy Award nominations en route to grossing $136.8 million at the box office from behind a budget of $54 million .

In hindsight, amid several 50th-anniversary honors this year, Pacino says he’s “deeply honored” for all the praise and accolades bestowed on The Godfather and that he’s “so happy” for the role of Michael Corleone, although he took them on him ‘for a lifetime to accept and move on.’