Hollywood came to Boston last week. A star-studded cast of Meryl Streep’s admiring colleagues and fans converged on Brookline’s Coolidge Corner Theatre to fete the actress who, with an unsurpassed 13 Oscar nominations and two wins, is among the most celebrated of all time. As of last Wednesday night, she could add the Coolidge Award to her list of accolades.

Now in its third year, the Coolidge Award was established to showcase a “film artist whose work advances the spirit of original and challenging filmmaking,” and to draw “public attention to the contribution the Coolidge Corner Theatre has made to expanding film culture in New England.” Chinese film director Zhang Yimou (House of Flying Daggers) and three-time Oscar-winning cinematographer Vittorio Storaro (Apocalypse Now) are its past winners.

On March 13, the Coolidge Corner Theatre began its month-long celebration with a series of seminars and a retrospective of some of Streep’s most acclaimed roles. The Monday-night screenings included The Deer Hunter, Silkwood, Kramer vs. Kramer, and Sophie’s Choice, while Out of Africa screens on April 17 at 7 pm. The centerpiece of these screenings was the local premiere of Robert Altman’s new A Prairie Home Companion.

Last Wednesday afternoon, following a media screening of his film, Altman appeared at a press conference accompanied by three members of his large ensemble cast — Kevin Kline, John C. Reilly, and, of course, Streep.

“I don’t think we’ve had this much excitement at the Coolidge since Michael Moore popped his head in during the Democratic Convention,” exclaimed publicist Marianne Lampke. Altman was in town for the convention as well. “You were here?” Lampke asked. “But you didn’t drop in . . . .”

Altman, exhibiting some of the spry wit he displayed when he accepted this year’s honorary Oscar, shot back with a devilish grin, “I wasn’t invited.”

Asked about her reaction to being chosen as the latest recipient of the Coolidge Award, Streep said, “This award is really celebrating not so much me, as it is an independent art theater. I think it’s a really important thing, and I’m proud to help out.”

The two-and-a-half-hour-long award ceremony was a sold-out, red-carpet affair. It kicked off with a string performance by students from the Brookline Music School. Local songwriter Patty Larkin played her hit “Angels Running” because “Cher covered it. You get the idea — Meryl Streep. Silkwood. Cher . . . Patty Larkin — 35 degrees of separation.”

Robert Brustein, founder of the Yale Repertory Theatre and Cambridge’s American Repertory Theatre, reminisced about Streep’s early years: “In a Hollywood community not particularly marked by selflessness, generosity, or commitment, Meryl remains one of the few American stars who bring great honor to her profession, passion to her social commitments, devotion to her family and” — in a sentiment that echoed strongly throughout the evening — “loyalty to her friends.”

Based on the celebrity testimonials that bookended countless film clips, those friends are legion — and not above getting a laugh or 10 at her expense. Sighed Kline, “It’s hard to find nice things to say about Meryl because they’ve all been said and frankly, I’m tired of hearing it. Every time the phone rings, I think, ‘Oh, God — it’s another tribute to Meryl.’ ”

Reilly introduced a clip of “the story of a family that took a river-rafting trip that went terribly, terribly wrong. I think the ‘genius’ of Meryl really came through to me during that scene when she had to swat me in the ass with an oar and knock me overboard. I’m making fun of The River Wild. But, what had the potential to be a thrill-ride kind of popcorn movie, in the presence of Meryl was transformed into this really terrifying family hostage drama! Meryl, you haven’t re-defined acting — you have defined it.”

Former film critic (and current book critic) for the New York Times Janet Maslin agreed but she still hoped to correct a misconception about Streep’s relationship with critics. “Critics have said so many nice things about her that you might get the idea that she’s a critic’s darling. But it couldn’t be less like that. She’s a critic’s nightmare. Think about it: we’ve only been [at this ceremony] for a very short time, and we’ve been told that she’s the ‘one and only’ Meryl Streep, her gene pool’s been admired, and it’s been suggested that she run for president.”

Suffering from an “absolute fear of public speaking,” Chris Cooper, Streep’s Oscar-winning co-star in Adaptation, began, “Meryl, you know I love you, but you owe me big time . . . . I’ve been asked to talk about the craft of acting and how Meryl meets those challenges. That’s a pretty good suggestion. But, with apologies, I am not about to tell you how Meryl meets these challenges. Those are the actor’s secrets, and I think they should remain so. Anyway, she didn’t let me in on ’em.”