Sofia Coppola Biography

Sofia Carmina Coppola (born May 14, 1971 in New York City) is an American Academy Award winning film director, actress, producer, and writer. She is the daughter of Italian American director Francis Ford Coppola and Eleanor Coppola, who is of British descent. She was married to director Spike Jonze on June 26, 1999 but the marriage ended in divorce on December 9, 2003. She is niece to Oscar-nominated actress Talia Shire and cousin to Nicolas Cage.

She attended Mills College and CalArts.

Coppola's career in film began early, as she appeared as an infant or a child extra in several of her father's films. The best known of these roles is her appearance in The Godfather as the baby boy in the christening scene.

Anna (1987) was the first film in which Coppola performed that was not associated with her father. However, her best known role is Mary Corleone in The Godfather Part III (1990), a role into which she was parachuted at the last minute after Winona Ryder fell ill. This heavily criticized performance effectively ended her acting career, barring an appearance in the independent film Inside Monkey Zetterland (1992), and a bit part in The Phantom Menace (1999).

Coppola is now better known as a successful film director. She has directed three films: Lick The Star (1996) The Virgin Suicides (1999) and Lost in Translation (2003). The latter won the Academy Award for original screenplay and three Golden Globe awards including Best Picture. With her Oscar nomination for Best Director (for Lost in Translation), Coppola became only the third woman (and the first American woman) to receive an Oscar nomination for film direction. She lost to Peter Jackson (director of the Lord of the Rings trilogy).

Coppola's forthcoming film is a biopic of Marie Antoinette adapted from the biography by British historian Lady Antonia Fraser. Kirsten Dunst is set to play the lead role, and Coppola has controversially cast her cousin Jason Schwartzman as Marie-Antoinette's husband, King Louis XVI.

The most common criticism of Coppola is that her career has only been possible due to the nepotism of her father. In addition to her much-derided performance in the final Godfather film, some critics have called her directorial skills over-rated, and argue that without her father's connections she would never have achieved her current fame. Also, that her brother Roman Coppola was the one responsible for the "look" of her recent film "Lost in Translation" because he was the one who did the cinematography which set the mood for the film. Her supporters respond that the general critical acclaim that greeted her two major films indicates she has talent regardless of how the films were produced.