Sofia Coppola was born May 12th 1971 in Manhattan, New York to parents Francis Ford Coppola and Eleanor Coppola both of whom have careers in the film industry. Sofia appeared in her first film at barely one year old playing a male baby in The Godfather. Throughout her childhood Sofia had cameo parts in several of her father’s films which included The Outsiders (1983), Rumble Fish (1983), The Cotton Club (1984), and Peggy Sue Got Married (1986). In 1989 Sofia and her father co-wrote a 30 minute segment to New York Stories entitled Life Without Zoe, Sofia acted and did costume design for the short but it wasn’t well received by critics. Then in 1990 Sofia was given her first major role in a feature film when she took the place of Winona Ryder in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather III. Critics were very hard on Sofia, claiming that her acting was dispassionate and amateur. She was given a Razzie award in 1991 for worst supporting actress and worst new star. Sofia only played one more small part in a film and then quit acting all together. She enrolled in the California Institute of the Arts where she studied film, costuming and photography. In 1994 Sofia worked mostly on music videos with her brother Roman Coppola but did write an unsuccessful Comedy Central series called High Octane that was cancelled after four episodes. 

Sofia eventually wrote her first short film in 1998 called Lick the Star which was a fourteen minute short about junior high cliques. Sofia’s major film debut came in 1999, after reading Jeffrey Eugenides’ 1993 debut novel The Virgin Suicides Sofia began a screenplay though one was already being written under contract from a studio. The contract eventually fell through and Sofia’s screenplay was given a chance. The Virgin Suicides is a film about five ill-fated teenage girls who commit suicide to the bewilderment of their community. Sofia wrote and directed the film with the help from her entire family. It premiered at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival and was then picked up by a studio and played in about 250 theaters in the United States. 

Sofia married fellow director Spike Jonze in 1999 though their marriage in currently in settlements for divorce. After The Virgin Suicides came out Sofia dabbled in television and researched for her most recent film and blockbuster hit Lost in Translation, a strange love story between two American visitors to Japan. Sofia also wrote and directed this film that won her an Oscar for best original screenplay and she made history becoming the first woman ever to be nominated for an Oscar for best director.

Credit: english.mnsu.edu