Sofia Coppola Recalls Early Career “Before Nepo Babies Were Charming” and Was Considered Actress Who “Ruined the ‘Godfather’ Films”
Sofia Coppola was honored at the Museum of Modern Art’s 2025 Film Benefit, presented by Chanel, on Wednesday, as the filmmaker looked back at the start of her career when she was known just as Francis Ford Coppola‘s daughter.
Bill Murray, Elle Fanning, Josh Hartnett, Jason Schwartzman, Roman Coppola, Michael Ovitz and MoMA’s chief curator of film Rajendra Roy were all on hand to pay tribute to Coppola, along with video messages from Kirsten Dunst and father Francis, for the museum’s 17th’s annual gala.
Accepting her honor from brother Roman and cousin Schwartzman, Coppola remembered, “When I started, I was in my 20s and it was the ’90s in L.A. where I was known as the daughter of. This was before nepo babies were charming and most of them ended up in rehab, and I was the amateur actress who single-handedly ruined the Godfather films,” she said to laughs from the crowd. Coppola appeared in all three movies — most notably as the criticized performance of Mary, the daughter of Michael Corleone, in Godfather III.
“Most people didn’t think I had something to say that mattered, but I found a few that did,” Coppola continued, as she went on to thank her longtime agent, her frequent troupe of actors and her creative collaborators, as well as her father who she appreciated for “being the best film teacher, showing us world cinema and always wanting his kids around on set; who from my first short film encouraged me so much.”
Coppola, who would go on to direct The Virgin Suicides, Lost in Translation, Marie Antoinette, The Bling Ring and new Marc Jacobs doc Marc By Sofia, also gave a special thanks to “Jane Campion for showing me that women could be strong, respected auteurs, and I’m grateful to Angelica Huston who told me when I was 20, ‘Not everyone’s going to love you, don’t waste your time on the people who don’t.’”
Roman Coppola, Bill Murray, Sofia Coppola and Elvis Costello.
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Museum of Modern Art
The filmmaker also noted that she began in the industry at a very different time and recalled, “an executive telling me that you couldn’t have a story with a female main character; that girls would go to stories about boys but boys wouldn’t go see a story about a girl.” Coppola celebrated the many female-fronted stories of today and young female filmmakers in the business, while adding, “I also remember times when a female executive liked a project, only to take it to the boss, who didn’t relate to it. I hope that we can now recognize how much we need women in positions of power to finance and support these filmmakers.”
Elvis Costello took the stage to close out the evening, which also welcomed David Letterman, Rose Byrne, Lupita Nyong’o, Romy Mars and Olivia Wilde. Coppola joins previous MoMA Film Benefit honorees Samuel L. Jackson, Guillermo del Toro, Penélope Cruz, George Clooney, Laura Dern, Martin Scorsese, Julianne Moore, Tom Hanks, Cate Blanchett, Alfonso Cuarón, Tilda Swinton, Quentin Tarantino, Pedro Almodóvar, Kathryn Bigelow, Tim Burton and Baz Luhrmann.
