Sofia Coppola

The director Sofia Coppola learnt her trade from her father, Francis Ford Coppola, assisting with make-up and casting on the sets of his films. Filming is the family business, and since 1999, when she wrote and directed Jeffrey Eugenides’ debut novel, The Virgin Suicides, Sofia has created films – often focused on teenagers – that unfold in their own meticulously crafted, closed universes, with a cast of characters (including the actress Kirsten Dunst) that has the feel of an extended family. Sofia lives in New York, in the West Village, with her husband the musician Thomas Mars and their two daughters. She was the third woman ever to be nominated for a director’s Oscar, in 2004 for Lost in Translation – it won for Best Original Screenplay.