Francis Ford Coppola facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Francis Ford Coppola
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Coppola in 2024
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| Born | April 7, 1939 Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
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| Years active | 1962–present |
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| Family | Coppola |
| Awards | Full list |
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Francis Ford Coppola (born April 7, 1939) is a famous American filmmaker. He is known as one of the most important directors from the "New Hollywood" era. He also helped shape the gangster movie style. Many people think he is one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers ever.
Coppola has won many awards. These include five Academy Awards (also known as Oscars), a BAFTA Award, three Golden Globe Awards, and two Palme d'Or awards. He also received special honors like the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 2010 and the Kennedy Center Honors in 2024. He was scheduled to receive the AFI Life Achievement Award in April 2025.
He started his career directing The Rain People (1969). He also helped write Patton (1970). For Patton, he won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. His fame grew with The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather Part II (1974). Both films won Best Picture Oscars. The Godfather Part II also earned him the Best Director Oscar. These movies changed the gangster film genre. He also directed the thriller The Conversation (1974), which won the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
His next big film was Apocalypse Now (1979), a movie about the Vietnam War. Making this film was very difficult and took a long time. It also won the Palme d'Or, making Coppola one of only ten directors to win this award twice. Later, he directed films like The Outsiders (1983), Rumble Fish (1983), The Cotton Club (1984), Peggy Sue Got Married (1986), The Godfather Part III (1990), Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), and The Rainmaker (1997). He also produced other movies, such as American Graffiti (1973) and The Secret Garden (1993).
Coppola was not happy with how big movie studios worked. So, he started making more independent and experimental films. These include Youth Without Youth (2007), Tetro (2009), Twixt (2011), and Megalopolis (2024).
Many of Coppola's family members are also in the film industry. His father, Carmine Coppola, was a composer who wrote music for his films. His sister, Talia Shire, is an actress. His daughter, Sofia Coppola, is a director. His son, Roman Coppola, is a screenwriter. His nephews, Jason Schwartzman and Nicolas Cage, are actors. Coppola lives in Napa, California. Since the 2010s, he has also been a winemaker, owning his own family winery.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Francis Ford Coppola was born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1939. His father, Carmine Coppola, was a musician who played the flute for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. His mother, Italia Coppola, came from a family of Italian immigrants. His grandparents came to the United States from Italy. His middle name, "Ford," was chosen because he was born at Henry Ford Hospital. Also, his father worked for the Ford Motor Company at the time.
Francis is the middle of three children. His older brother was August Coppola, and his younger sister is actress Talia Shire. When Francis was two, his family moved to New York. They settled in Woodside, Queens, where he grew up.
As a boy, Coppola had polio and spent a lot of time in bed. During this time, he made puppet shows. He became interested in theater at age 15 after reading a play called A Streetcar Named Desire. He also made short films using an 8 mm camera. He edited these films from home movies. Even though he was an average student, he loved technology. This earned him the nickname "Science" when he was a child. He first planned to study music and learned to play the tuba. He even got a music scholarship. He went to 23 different schools before graduating from high school.
In 1955, he started at Hofstra University. He studied theater arts and won a scholarship for playwriting. This made him more interested in directing plays. However, his father wanted him to study engineering. Coppola was very impressed by the film October: Ten Days That Shook the World (1928), especially its editing. This made him decide to study filmmaking instead of theater. He also said that his brother August influenced him to become a writer. Coppola also admired the work of director Elia Kazan. Some of Coppola's classmates at Hofstra were James Caan and Lainie Kazan. He later cast both of them in his movies.
While in college, Coppola was president of the drama group and the musical comedy club. He combined them into "The Spectrum Players." Under his leadership, they put on a new show every week. Coppola also started a film workshop at Hofstra. He wrote a lot for the campus literary magazine. He won several awards for his theater work. In graduate school, he studied with professor Dorothy Arzner. Her encouragement was very important for his career.
Filmmaking Journey
Early Works (1960s)
After college, Coppola went to UCLA Film School in 1960. There, he directed short horror films. He also met Jim Morrison, who later became the lead singer of The Doors.
In the early 1960s, Coppola worked for director Roger Corman. Corman first asked Coppola to change a Soviet science fiction film called Nebo Zovyot (1959). Coppola turned it into a monster movie called Battle Beyond the Sun (1962). Corman was impressed and hired him for other jobs. Coppola worked as a dialogue director, sound man, and associate producer on several films.
Coppola's first full-length movie was Dementia 13 (1963). While working on another film in Ireland, Corman suggested Coppola use leftover money to make a low-budget horror movie. Coppola wrote the story quickly. He directed Dementia 13 in just nine days with a small budget. The movie made its money back and became popular with horror fans. On the set of Dementia 13, Coppola met Eleanor Jessie Neil, who he later married.
In 1965, Coppola won an award for his screenplay Pilma, Pilma. This helped him get a job as a scriptwriter. He co-wrote scripts for films like This Property Is Condemned (1966). Coppola also bought the rights to a novel called You're a Big Boy Now. He turned it into his UCLA thesis project, which became the film You're a Big Boy Now (1966). This film was released in theaters and received good reviews.
After You're a Big Boy Now was successful, Coppola directed the musical Finian's Rainbow (1968). It starred Fred Astaire. The film was a success with critics and audiences. On this film, Coppola met George Lucas, who became a close friend.
Coppola wrote, directed, and produced The Rain People (1969). He wanted to make movies his own way, without big studios controlling him. He dreamed of building his own film studio. He named it "Zoetrope" after seeing a zoetrope, an old animation toy. In 1969, Coppola and Lucas started Zoetrope Studio in a warehouse in San Francisco.
The Godfather Era (1970s)
Patton (1970)
Coppola co-wrote the script for Patton starting in 1963. This script won him his first Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. The movie's famous opening scene, where actor George C. Scott gives a speech in front of an American flag, was Coppola's idea. It was hard to convince the filmmakers to use it at first. But Scott, who played Patton, insisted on using Coppola's script. This scene has become very famous and has been copied in many other films and TV shows.
The Godfather (1972)
The Godfather (1972) was a huge moment in Coppola's career. The movie studio, Paramount, owned the rights to Mario Puzo's novel about a mafia family. Coppola was not the first choice to direct. He even turned down the job at first because he thought the book was "cheap." But his own film studio, American Zoetrope, was in debt. So, he decided to take the job.
Coppola was announced as the director in September 1970. He agreed to be paid $125,000 plus a percentage of the movie's earnings. Coppola saw the story as more than just a crime film. He saw it as a family saga and a look at capitalism in America. The story is about the Corleone family and how the father, Vito Corleone, passes his power to his son, Michael.
There were disagreements about who should act in the film. Coppola wanted Marlon Brando to play Vito, but the studio did not. After much discussion, Coppola was allowed to cast Brando. Brando agreed to work for less money and do a screen test. Coppola later said that making The Godfather was a "nightmarish experience." He felt the studio was unhappy with his choices and that he might be fired.
However, the film was a huge success. It broke box office records. Critics loved it. One critic, Pauline Kael, wrote that Coppola "salvaged Puzo’s energy and lent the narrative dignity." She praised his "tenaciously intelligent" direction.
Besides Brando, the film starred Al Pacino, James Caan, John Cazale, and Robert Duvall. It also featured Diane Keaton and Coppola's sister, Talia Shire. Brando won the Oscar for Best Actor, but he refused to accept it. The film won Oscars for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay. Coppola was nominated for Best Director. The music for the film was by Nino Rota. The cinematography, which is how the film was shot, was also highly praised.
The Godfather is often ranked as one of the greatest movies ever made. The American Film Institute ranked it as the second-best American film of all time in 2007.
The Conversation (1974)
The Conversation (1974) further showed Coppola's talent. This film was inspired by another movie called Blowup (1966). It gained a lot of attention because it was about surveillance and wire-tapping. This was similar to the Watergate scandal happening at the time. Coppola said this was a coincidence, as he wrote the script in the 1960s. But audiences saw it as a response to Watergate.
The film stars Gene Hackman as Harry Caul, a surveillance expert. He is hired to spy on a young couple. The movie was a critical success. It won Coppola his first Palme d'Or at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival. Coppola's brother-in-law, David Shire, wrote the music. Walter Murch edited the film.
The Godfather Part II (1974)
The Godfather Part II tells two stories at once. It shows the early life of Vito Corleone and the later life of his son Michael. It is both a prequel (showing what happened before) and a sequel (showing what happened after) to the first film. Coppola said it was the first major movie to use "Part II" in its title. This started a trend in Hollywood for numbered sequels.
The movie received amazing reviews. Many people thought it was even better than the first one. Pauline Kael wrote that Coppola "plunged us back into the sensuality and terror of the first film." She said it was "far more complexly beautiful" and "thematically richer."
Many actors from the first film returned, including Pacino, Cazale, Duvall, Keaton, and Shire. New actors included Robert De Niro, who played young Vito. The Godfather Part II was nominated for 11 Oscars and won six. These included Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Director. De Niro won Best Supporting Actor for playing Vito. This made him and Brando the first actors to win Oscars for playing the same character.
The film is highly ranked on many "greatest movies" lists. Together, The Godfather and The Godfather Part II are considered among the best films ever made.
Apocalypse Now (1979)
After his successes, Coppola began filming Apocalypse Now. This movie was based on the novel Heart of Darkness (1899) and set during the Vietnam War. It follows a soldier named Willard (Martin Sheen) who travels up a river to find and kill a rogue officer named Kurtz (Marlon Brando).
Making this film in the Philippines was very difficult. There were typhoons, actors had health problems, and Brando arrived unprepared. The production was delayed so often that people joked it was called Apocalypse When?.
Apocalypse Now premiered at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival. Coppola famously said, "My film is not about Vietnam, it is Vietnam." Despite some critics finding the message unclear, it shared the Palme d'Or. It also won Oscars for Best Cinematography and Best Sound. Film critic Roger Ebert praised the film for recreating the "moods and feelings" of the Vietnam experience. He called the helicopter assault scene "the best movie battle scene ever filmed."
The film's reputation has grown over time. Many now see it as a masterpiece. It is often listed as one of the greatest movies ever made. Walter Murch received the first-ever "Sound Designer" credit for his work on this film.
A documentary called Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (1991) was made about the difficult production of Apocalypse Now. It was directed by Coppola's wife, Eleanor Coppola, who was there during filming. Coppola famously said about the production, "We were in the jungle, there were too many of us, we had access to too much money, too much equipment and little by little, we went insane."
Challenging Times (1980s)
Apocalypse Now marked the end of Coppola's most successful period. His musical film One from the Heart (1982) used new video-editing techniques. However, it was a huge financial failure. It earned very little money compared to its high cost. This forced Coppola to sell his Zoetrope Studio in 1983. He spent the rest of the 1980s working to pay off his debts. Roger Ebert said the film was "a ballet of graceful and complex camera movements" but that the characters got lost.
In 1983, Coppola directed The Outsiders, based on the popular novel by S. E. Hinton. Coppola said he was inspired to make the film by middle school students who loved the book. The Outsiders helped launch the careers of many young actors. These included Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio, C. Thomas Howell, Patrick Swayze, Emilio Estevez, Diane Lane, Tom Cruise, and Rob Lowe. His father, Carmine Coppola, wrote the music for the film.
He also directed Rumble Fish (1983) at the same time as The Outsiders. This film was also based on a novel by S. E. Hinton. It was shot in black-and-white as a tribute to German expressionism. Rumble Fish did not do well at the box office.
In 1984, Coppola directed The Cotton Club, a film about a famous Harlem jazz club. The film was nominated for several awards but also struggled financially. That same year, he directed a TV adaptation of "Rip Van Winkle" for Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre.
In 1986, Coppola directed Captain EO, a 17-minute space fantasy starring Michael Jackson for Disney theme parks. Also in 1986, Coppola released the comedy Peggy Sue Got Married starring Kathleen Turner and his nephew Nicolas Cage. The film received good reviews and earned Turner an Oscar nomination. It was Coppola's first box-office success since The Outsiders.
The next year, Coppola directed Gardens of Stone. This film was overshadowed by the tragic death of his eldest son, Gian-Carlo Coppola, during its production. The movie was not a critical or commercial success.
In 1988, Coppola directed Tucker: The Man and His Dream. This film was about Preston Tucker and his attempt to build a new car. The film received positive reviews and earned three Oscar nominations. However, it did not make much money at the box office.
In 1989, Coppola directed a segment called "Life Without Zoë" for the film New York Stories. This segment, co-written with his daughter Sofia, was generally disliked by critics. In 1990, Zoetrope Studios filed for bankruptcy and changed its name to American Zoetrope.
Continued Work (1990s)
The Godfather Part III (1990)
In 1990, Coppola released The Godfather Part III, the third and final movie in The Godfather series. Coppola felt that the first two films had told the complete story. He only made Part III because he was in a difficult financial situation after One from the Heart failed. Coppola and the writer, Mario Puzo, wanted to call it The Death of Michael Corleone, but the studio disagreed.
While not as highly praised as the first two films, it was still successful at the box office. Some critics did not like the casting of Coppola's daughter, Sofia, in a main role. Despite this, The Godfather Part III received seven Oscar nominations, including Best Director and Best Picture. However, it did not win any of these awards.
In 2020, for the film's 30th anniversary, a new version was released called Mario Puzo's The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone. Coppola said this version was what he and Puzo had originally wanted.
Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)
In 1992, Coppola directed and produced Bram Stoker's Dracula. This film was based on Bram Stoker's famous novel and aimed to follow the book more closely than previous movies. Coppola cast Gary Oldman as Dracula, with Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder, and Anthony Hopkins in other roles. The movie was a big success at the box office worldwide. It won Academy Awards for Costume Design, Makeup, and Sound Editing.
Jack (1996)
Coppola's next film was Jack, released in 1996. It starred Robin Williams as Jack Powell, a ten-year-old boy who looks like a 40-year-old man because his cells grow very fast. The film also featured Diane Lane, Bill Cosby, Jennifer Lopez, and Fran Drescher. The movie was not a box-office success and received negative reviews. Many critics disliked how it mixed comedy with sad drama. They also felt the story was not believable. Some critics thought Coppola was too talented to make this kind of film. However, Coppola has defended the movie, saying he is not ashamed of it. He had always wanted to work with Robin Williams.
The Rainmaker (1997)
The last film Coppola directed in the 1990s was The Rainmaker. It was based on a novel by John Grisham. This courtroom drama film was well-received by critics. Roger Ebert gave it three stars, saying Coppola showed "the variety of a young lawyer's life." John Grisham himself said it was "the best adaptation of any of [my books]." The film earned more than its budget but was not as big a hit as other movies based on Grisham's novels.
Coppola said that after this film, he stopped working as a "professional director." He wanted to experiment more and make smaller, low-budget films that he financed himself. He said these films were not meant to be successful but to help him learn more about filmmaking.
Later Career (2000s-Present)
Apocalypse Now Redux
In the late 1990s, Coppola started re-editing some of his older films for home video. The first was Apocalypse Now. The new version, Apocalypse Now Redux, added 49 minutes that had been cut from the original 1979 release. This included a famous scene at a French plantation. Actors re-recorded lines for these scenes, and new music was added. This version was released in cinemas in 2001 and later on DVD.
A. O. Scott wrote that Apocalypse Now Redux reminded people of a time when filmmakers were very creative and took big risks. He said that Coppola's "divine madness" in making the film was less important than the art itself.
In 2005, Coppola created a new version of The Outsiders for home video. This version, called The Outsiders: The Complete Novel, added more than 20 minutes of footage. It also included new music.
Return to Directing
After a ten-year break, Coppola returned to directing with Youth Without Youth in 2007. This film was based on a novel by a Romanian author. It received mostly negative reviews and did not make much money. Because of this, Coppola announced he would produce his own films. He wanted to avoid the marketing pressures that make most films try to appeal to everyone.
In 2009, Coppola released Tetro. This film was set in Argentina and was about two brothers reuniting. It explored family rivalries and creative differences. The film received generally positive reviews. Critics praised its visuals and emotional story.
Twixt, starring Val Kilmer and Elle Fanning, was released at film festivals in 2011 and in theaters in 2012. It received good reviews in France but mostly negative reviews elsewhere.
In 2015, Coppola said he stopped making "factory movies." He preferred to experiment with filmmaking. He noted that the film industry had shifted to making big superhero movies and large series. He felt he was no longer interested in putting in the huge effort required for such films.
Coppola continued to create new director's cuts of his films. In 2015, he found an old tape of his original cut of The Cotton Club. He spent his own money to restore it. It premiered in 2019 as The Cotton Club Encore. He also re-edited his first movie, Dementia 13. In 2019, he released another version of Apocalypse Now called "The Final Cut." This version removed some scenes from Redux and was restored from the original film.
In December 2020, a re-edited version of Godfather III was released. It was called The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone. Coppola said this was the version he and Mario Puzo had originally imagined. Coppola's most recent director's cut was B'Twixt Now and Sunrise, a shorter version of Twixt, released in 2022.
At the 94th Academy Awards in 2022, they celebrated the 50th anniversary of The Godfather. Coppola attended with Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, receiving a standing ovation.
Megalopolis (2024)
In April 2019, Coppola announced his plans to direct Megalopolis. He had been working on this idea for many years. He said it would be a huge epic film, using everything he had learned in his long career. The story is about rebuilding New York City after a major disaster. He had planned it earlier, but after the September 11 attacks, the project was put on hold because it was too sensitive.
In 2021, Coppola began talking to actors for the project. Filming took place from late 2022 to early 2023. The cast included Adam Driver, Forest Whitaker, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jon Voight, and Laurence Fishburne. His sister Talia Shire and nephew Jason Schwartzman also joined the cast.
Megalopolis was released in IMAX in Fall 2024. It premiered at the 77th Cannes Film Festival in April 2024.
Future Projects
In August 2024, Coppola said he would not retire after Megalopolis. He plans to work on two more projects. One is a film adaptation of The Glimpses of the Moon with lots of dance and music. The other is Distant Vision, a "live cinema" project he has been developing since 2015. It tells a fictional story of three generations of an Italian American family during the invention of television.
Business Ventures
American Zoetrope
In 1971, Coppola produced George Lucas' first film, THX 1138. After finishing the film, they showed it to Warner Bros. along with other ideas for their new company, American Zoetrope. However, the studio executives did not like the films or ideas. They demanded that Coppola repay a large loan. This debt almost closed Zoetrope and forced Coppola to focus on directing The Godfather.
American Zoetrope also runs the Zoetrope Virtual Studio. This is an online studio for filmmakers. It was launched in 2000 and helps screenwriters, directors, and producers.
Uptown Theater
In 2003, Coppola partnered with others to restore the Uptown Theater in Napa, California. Their goal was to create a live entertainment venue.
Francis Ford Coppola Presents
Coppola owns a lifestyle brand called Francis Ford Coppola Presents. Under this brand, he sells products from his various companies. These include films, resorts, cafes, a literary magazine, pasta sauces, and wine.
Wineries
Francis Ford Coppola Winery
The Francis Ford Coppola Winery is located near Geyserville, California. It is a family-friendly place inspired by the Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen. It has swimming pools, bocce courts, and a restaurant. The winery displays some of Coppola's Oscars and items from his movies. These include Vito Corleone's desk from The Godfather and a restored car from Tucker: The Man and His Dream.
In August 2021, Coppola sold Francis Ford Coppola Winery to Delicato Family Wines.
Inglenook Winery
In 1975, Coppola bought a vineyard in California's Napa Valley with money from The Godfather. His family helped him make his first wine in 1977. They have a harvest party every year to continue the tradition.
He first produced wine under the Niebaum-Coppola label. In 1995, he bought the historic Inglenook Winery chateau. In 2011, Coppola bought the Inglenook trademark and renamed his estate back to its original name, Inglenook. The grapes grown there are all organic.
Domaine de Broglie
In October 2018, Coppola and his family bought a winery in Dayton, Oregon. In 2019, they renamed it Domaine de Broglie.
Resorts
Coppola's "Francis Ford Coppola Presents" brand also includes several hotels and resorts. These are part of his Hideaway company. They include the Blancaneaux Lodge and The Turtle Inn in Belize, La Lancha in Guatemala, Jardín Escondido in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Palazzo Margherita in Bernalda, Italy, and the All-Movie Hotel in Peachtree City, Georgia, US. Many of these resorts have won awards.
Cafe and Restaurant
In San Francisco, Coppola owns a restaurant called Cafe Zoetrope. It is located in the Sentinel Building, where American Zoetrope is based. It serves Italian food and wine from his vineyard. From 1994 to 2008, Coppola also co-owned the Rubicon restaurant in San Francisco with Robin Williams and Robert De Niro.
Literary Publications
In 1973, Coppola invested in a magazine called City of San Francisco. He wanted it to be a "service magazine" that told readers about things to do in cities. This magazine was not successful, and he lost money on it.
In 1997, Coppola co-founded the literary magazine Zoetrope: All-Story. This magazine focuses on short stories and design. It publishes stories by new writers alongside famous ones. Coppola is the founding editor and publisher of All-Story.
Personal Life
Family
In 1963, Coppola married writer and documentary filmmaker Eleanor Jessie Neil. She later co-directed Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse. They had three children: Gian-Carlo Coppola, Roman Coppola, and Sofia Coppola. All of them became filmmakers. Gian-Carlo died in 1986 at age 22 in a speedboating accident. He had one child, Gia Coppola, who is also a filmmaker. Nicolas Cage and Jason Schwartzman are Coppola's nephews.
Eleanor Coppola passed away on April 12, 2024, at the age of 87.
Politics
During the 1980 United States presidential election, Coppola filmed a large rally for presidential candidate Jerry Brown. Over the years, Coppola has worked with several Democratic political candidates.
Favorite Films
In 2012, Coppola shared his list of favorite films for the Sight & Sound poll. This poll happens every ten years to find the greatest films of all time. Directors are asked to choose ten films.
Coppola's choices included:
- The Apartment (United States, 1960)
- Ashes and Diamonds (Poland, 1958)
- The Bad Sleep Well (Japan, 1960)
- The Best Years of Our Lives (United States, 1946)
- I Vitelloni (Italy, 1953)
- The King of Comedy (United States, 1983)
- Raging Bull (United States, 1980)
- Singin' in the Rain (United States, 1952)
- Sunrise (United States, 1927)
- Yojimbo (Japan, 1961)
Filmography
| Year | Title | Distributor |
|---|---|---|
| 1963 | Dementia 13 | American International Pictures |
| 1966 | You're a Big Boy Now | Warner Bros.-Seven Arts |
| 1968 | Finian's Rainbow | |
| 1969 | The Rain People | |
| 1972 | The Godfather | Paramount Pictures |
| 1974 | The Conversation | |
| The Godfather Part II | ||
| 1979 | Apocalypse Now | United Artists |
| 1982 | One from the Heart | Columbia Pictures |
| 1983 | The Outsiders | Warner Bros. |
| Rumble Fish | Universal Pictures | |
| 1984 | The Cotton Club | Orion Pictures |
| 1986 | Peggy Sue Got Married | TriStar Pictures |
| 1987 | Gardens of Stone | |
| 1988 | Tucker: The Man and His Dream | Paramount Pictures |
| 1990 | The Godfather Part III | |
| 1992 | Bram Stoker's Dracula | Columbia Pictures |
| 1996 | Jack | Buena Vista Pictures |
| 1997 | The Rainmaker | Paramount Pictures |
| 2007 | Youth Without Youth | Sony Pictures Classics |
| 2009 | Tetro | American Zoetrope |
| 2011 | Twixt | 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment |
| 2024 | Megalopolis | Lionsgate Films |
Awards and Honors
For The Godfather Part II and The Conversation, Coppola was one of only a few directors to have two nominations for Best Picture in the same year. He is also one of ten directors to win the Palme d'Or twice, for The Conversation and Apocalypse Now.
On October 15, 2024, Coppola received Rome's highest honor, the Capitoline Wolf statue. A street in Rome was also named after him. In 2024, he was honored by the Kennedy Center. His friend George Lucas said about him: “What Francis does creatively is jump off cliffs. When you spend enough time with Francis, you begin to believe you can jump off cliffs, too.” He was scheduled to receive the AFI Life Achievement Award in April 2025.
| Year | Title | Academy Awards | BAFTA Awards | Golden Globe Awards | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominations | Wins | Nominations | Wins | Nominations | Wins | ||
| 1966 | You're a Big Boy Now | 1 | 1 | 3 | |||
| 1968 | Finian's Rainbow | 2 | 5 | ||||
| 1972 | The Godfather | 10 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 7 | 6 |
| 1974 | The Conversation | 3 | 5 | 2 | 4 | ||
| The Godfather Part II | 11 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 6 | ||
| 1979 | Apocalypse Now | 8 | 2 | 9 | 2 | 4 | 3 |
| 1982 | One from the Heart | 1 | |||||
| 1983 | Rumble Fish | 1 | |||||
| 1984 | The Cotton Club | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | ||
| 1986 | Peggy Sue Got Married | 3 | 2 | ||||
| 1988 | Tucker: The Man and His Dream | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 1990 | The Godfather Part III | 7 | 7 | ||||
| 1992 | Bram Stoker's Dracula | 4 | 3 | 4 | |||
| 1997 | The Rainmaker | 1 | |||||
| Total | 55 | 14 | 31 | 8 | 42 | 10 | |
Oscar-Nominated Performances Directed by Coppola
Actors who received Academy Award nominations (and wins) for their roles in Coppola's films:
| Year | Performer | Film Feature | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best Actor in a Lead Role | |||
| 1973 | Marlon Brando | The Godfather | Won |
| 1975 | Al Pacino | The Godfather Part II | Nominated |
| Best Actress in a Lead Role | |||
| 1987 | Kathleen Turner | Peggy Sue Got Married | Nominated |
| Best Actor in a Supporting Role | |||
| 1973 | James Caan | The Godfather | Nominated |
| Robert Duvall | Nominated | ||
| Al Pacino | Nominated | ||
| 1975 | Robert De Niro | The Godfather Part II | Won |
| Michael V. Gazzo | Nominated | ||
| Lee Strasberg | Nominated | ||
| 1980 | Robert Duvall | Apocalypse Now | Nominated |
| 1989 | Martin Landau | Tucker: The Man and His Dream | Nominated |
| 1991 | Andy García | The Godfather Part III | Nominated |
| Best Actress in a Supporting Role | |||
| 1967 | Geraldine Page | You're a Big Boy Now | Nominated |
| 1975 | Talia Shire | The Godfather Part II | Nominated |
See also
In Spanish: Francis Ford Coppola para niños
- Coppola family tree
- List of wine personalities
- List of celebrities who own wineries and vineyards
