Martin Scorsese was the first recipient of the Legend of Cinema award during CinemaCon, the exhibitors’ conference that takes place every year in Las Vegas. During a private luncheon, hundreds of attendees gave a standing ovation to the maestro when he was presented with the honor. After a few words of appreciation, Scorsese was joined on stage by Leonardo DiCaprio, a longtime collaborator, and a conversation between the two unfolded.

Scorsese started by stating that “the role of a legend should be to infuse excitement and enthusiasm to the next generation of artists. It’s about inspiring and being a good teacher. It’s about leaving the next generation prepared to reinvent the art form.”

DiCaprio followed by saying that Scorsese is not only all of those things, but also a pioneer in filmmaking and the greatest advocate for film preservation and restoration around the world. In the spirit of the conference, he asked the director what he thought about the theatrical experience as opposed to the culture of streaming that emerged a few years ago.

The director replied, “When you go to a theater, you have to pay attention to that film. At home, you can control the environment. There is no collective experience in real time. It translates differently to the audience. “

He added, “I come from a working-class family that could not afford to take me to the staged theater. So we went to the cinema. Movies were the art form that introduced me to everything. I learned about the outside world through movies. If it weren’t for cinema, I would not have had the chance to be exposed to the world.

“Also, I had asthma at the age of three, so I was kept away from sports. My parents did not know what to do with me so they took me to the movies. Cinema was my escape. When I was 15 and I saw Citizen Kane, I was floored. It was interesting to realize the amount of truth that could emanate from a movie through technology. That kept me very interested.”

After a few more remarks about his biggest influences and inspirations in moviemaking, Scorsese underlined the importance of breaking rules and pointed out that those are the moments where the art moves forward. He mentioned names like Truffaut and Godard, two directors of the French New Wave that broke certain boundaries by reframing the grammar of movie-making, while still communicating a story. He stressed the magnificence of these moments in cinemas history as the biggest steppingstones towards where cinema is now.

The conversation ended with DiCaprio and Scorsese introducing their new film that will premiere later this year. Killers of the Flower Moon is an American crime story that investigates the murders that occurred in Oklahoma in the 1920s. When oil started to be found in that area of the US there were a lot of deaths that happened in mysterious circumstances. A century later, the maestro wanted to shine a light on this story as a long overdue reckoning of a past atrocity.