Detailed Biography

Sofia Carmina Coppola is an American film director, actress, producer and screenwriter. She is the third female director, and only American woman, to be nominated for an Academy Award for Directing.

Early life

Coppola was born in New York City, New York, the youngest child and only daughter of set decorator/artist Eleanor Coppola and director Francis Ford Coppola , granddaughter of the late composer Carmine Coppola, sister of Roman Coppola and the late Gian-Carlo Coppola, niece of her father's siblings August Coppola and Talia Shire and a cousin of Nicolas Cage, Jason Schwartzman and Robert Carmine. She attended Mills College and the California Institute of the Arts, and interned with Chanel when she was 15. After graduating, Coppola started a clothing line called Milkfed that is sold exclusively in Japan.

Career

Acting

Coppola began her career as an infant, making several background appearances in her father's films. The most well-known of these early roles is her appearance in The Godfather as the baby boy in the christening scene. She is also seen in her father's film The Outsiders in a scene where Matt Dillon, Tommy Howell, and Ralph Macchio are eating at a Dairy Queen before the famous burning church scene.

Frankenweenie was the first film she performed in that was not associated with her father. However, it often goes unnoticed due to her stage name, "Domino" which she adopted at the time because she thought it was glamorous, while still being quite ridiculous.

In 1986, 15-year old Sophia was given the role of Kathleen Turner's sister, Nancy Kelcher, in Peggy Sue Got Married. The film was directed by her father, Francis Ford Coppola, and co-starred her cousin, Nicolas Cage.

The 1989 short film entitled Life Without Zoe was released as part of a 3-part anthology film, New York Stories. It was written by Sofia Coppola and her father, Francis Ford Coppola .

Her best known acting role is Mary Corleone in The Godfather Part III , a role for which she was cast by her father after Winona Ryder fell ill. This was a significant role for such an inexperienced actress, and the casting decision has been described as celebrity nepotism. Her heavily criticized performance effectively ended her acting career, save for appearances in the 1992 independent film Inside Monkey Zetterland, and in the background of films by her friends and family. In 1999, she appeared as Saché in George Lucas' Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. She has since been quoted as saying she wasn't hurt by the criticism from her role in The Godfather Part III because she never especially wanted an acting career.

Coppola can also be seen in several music videos from the 1990s, appearing in The Black Crowes' "Sometimes Salvation" in 1992 and went on to play a gymnast in the 1997 video for "Elektrobank" by the Chemical Brothers, which was directed by her ex-husband Spike Jonze.

Directing

Her first three films were Lick the Star , The Virgin Suicides and Lost in Translation . Lost in Translation won the Academy Award for original screenplay and three Golden Globe Awards including Best Picture. Alongside Lina Wertmüller and Jane Campion, Coppola became the third female director to be nominated for an Academy Award for Directing. She is also the only American woman to be nominated . Her win for best original screenplay made her a third-generation Oscar winner. In 2004, Coppola was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Coppola's most recent film is the biopic Marie Antoinette, adapted from the biography by British historian Lady Antonia Fraser. Kirsten Dunst plays the title character who marries King Louis XVI, played by Jason Schwartzman, Coppola's cousin. It débuted at the Cannes Film Festival where, despite boos in the audience, it received a standing ovation. Critics were divided.

In the mid-1990s, she and best friend Zoe Cassavetes helmed the short-lived series Hi Octane on Comedy Central. which spotlighted performers in underground music, with frequent guests like Donovan Leitch, Mike Watt, Thurston Moore, Beck, and model-actress Jenny Shimizu .

In December 2008, Coppola's first commercial premiered during an episode of Gossip Girl. The advertisement in which she directed for the Christian Dior fragrance Miss Dior Chérie which was shot in France with model Maryna Linchuk was very well received and continues to be popular on YouTube.

Variety reported in April 2009 that her new film, Somewhere, had recently received permission to film at Chateau Marmont. The plot of her latest work will centre around a "bad-boy" actor portrayed by Stephen Dorff who is forced to re-evaluate his life when his daughter, played by Elle Fanning, arrives unexpectedly.

Modeling

At the beginning of the 1990s, she was often featured in female-oriented magazines like Seventeen and YM. In 1998, she co-founded the clothing line Milkfed in Japan with friend Stephanie Hayman in cooperation with Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon.

In 2002, fashion designer Marc Jacobs handpicked the actress/director to be the face of his house's fragrance. The campaign involved photographs of her shot by photographer Juergen Teller in his chic signature grainy style.

Personal life

Coppola married director Spike Jonze in 1999 after being friends for nearly ten years; they were divorced in 2003.

Sofia Coppola lives in Paris, France. Sofia described her love for the city and her favorite places there, "The Palais-Royal, the Tuileries Garden, the Musee D'Orsay. You can tell I love the city, right? It's a filmmaker's dream there; the colors are beautiful!" There, in Paris, on Tuesday, November 28, 2006, Coppola gave birth to her first child, a daughter named Romy, who is named in honor of her brother Roman. The child's father is Thomas Mars, of the French rock band Phoenix. Coppola first met Mars while producing the soundtrack to The Virgin Suicides. They have since collaborated on Lost in Translation, Marie Antoinette and reportedly the upcoming Somewhere.