Coppola, Sofia

Career Development

Coppola began her career as an actress, appearing in many of her father's films, including the Godfather trilogy, Rumble Fish, and The Outsiders. She hosted a popular culture show, Hi Octane, on the Comedy Channel with Zoe Cassavetes. In the 1990s, Coppola transitioned from acting to fashion, photography, and filmmaking. She interned at Chanel, modeled for Marc Jacobs, and developed a fashion label, Milk Fed, with Stephanie Hayman. Her photography has appeared in books and fashion magazines.

Coppola's films primarily focus on young women at pivotal stages in their lives. Coppola's black-and-white short film Lick the Star (1998) portrays a clique of girls inspired by the sinister teen cult novel, V. C. Andrew's Flowers in the Attic, to poison the boys in their high school. She subsequently wrote and directed three feature films and is completing a fourth. Told from the perspective of infatuated neighborhood boys, Coppola's film The Virgin Suicides (1999) is a dark, suburban coming-of-age story that portrays the suicides of the sheltered, idealized, adolescent Lisbon sisters. Lost in Translation (2003) is a pensive dramatic comedy that captures the brief relationship between two geographically and socially dislocated individuals, a 20-something newlywed and a middle-aged actor in Tokyo, struggling with melancholy and the frustration of ill-fated marriages. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards and won the Oscar for best screenplay, making Coppola only the third woman and the first American woman to be nominated for an Academy Award for directing.

Her next film, Marie Antoinette (2006), recounts Marie Antoinette's transition from a sheltered, decadent teenager to the queen of France. Coppola's recent film, Somewhere, focuses on male development by portraying a hard-partying Hollywood actor forced to reevaluate his life when his 11-year-old daughter unexpectedly visits. Recently, Coppola began directing television commercials and music videos. While her films have received mixed reviews, critics recognize Coppola as a formidable member of the predominantly male American New Wave.