Francis Ford Coppola

President of the 'Official Competition' jury at the 15th Marrakech International Film Festival in 2015.

He, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg presented Martin Scorsese with his first ever Oscar for Best Director for The Departed (2006). All four directors were part of the "New Hollywood" movement in the 60s and 70s.

As of May 2002, the number of Coppola-family members appearing in or contributing to filmmaking stands at thirteen, spread over three generations.

Since the mid-90s (and possibly even earlier), he has been writing and re- writing an original screenplay entitled "Megalopolis". Described as "one man's quest to build utopia set in modern-day New York following a major disaster," the project has been delayed due to Coppola's constant tinkering with the script and the fact that the director is attempting to finance it himself. He admitted to taking on studio films such as Jack (1996) and John Grisham's The Rainmaker (1997) in order to make this happen. Several A-list actors have had their names attached to it and a great excess of second-unit footage (shot in 24p HD) has been captured by Coppola and the film's cinematographer, Ron Fricke of Baraka (1992) fame. However, the terrorist attacks on New York on September 11th 2001 made the movie's subject matter too sensitive, and the project was shelved indefinitely, although Coppola hasn't fully ruled it out.

Was in the early stages of developing a script for a fourth Godfather film with Mario Puzo which was to tell the story of the early lives of Sonny, Fredo and Michael. After Puzo's death in July of 1999, Coppola abandoned the project, stating that he couldn't do it without his friend.

President of the 'Official Competition' jury at the 49th Cannes International Film Festival in 1996.

In 1986 his 22-year-old son, Gian-Carlo, died in a boating accident.

Is a big fan of actress Diane Lane and has cast her in no less than 4 films, The Outsiders (1983), Rumble Fish (1983), The Cotton Club (1984) and Jack (1996).

Coppola also executive produced such films as The Escape Artist (1982), Hammett (1982) The Black Stallion Returns (1983), Barfly (1987), Wind (1992), The Secret Garden (1993), etc. He helped to make a star of his nephew, Nicolas Cage.

With George Lucas, Coppola executive produced Kagemusha (1980), directed by Akira Kurosawa, and Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985), directed by Paul Schrader and based on the life and writings of Yukio Mishima.

Coppola then began work on his most ambitious film, Apocalypse Now (1979), a Vietnam War epic that was inspired by Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness (1993).

Released in 1979, the acclaimed film won a Golden Palm Award at the Cannes Film Festival, and two Academy Awards.

Also that year, Coppola executive produced the hit The Black Stallion (1979).

Since 1978, owner and operator of a Rutherford, California vineyard making Rubicon wine.

Coppola began his winery enterprise by buying a portion of the historic Inglenook estate in 1975. His success in the field is explored in the book "A Sense of Place" by Steven Kolpan, 1999.

Following his work on the screenplay for The Great Gatsby (1974), Coppola's next film was The Conversation (1974), which was honored with the Golden Palm Award at the Cannes Film Festival, and brought Coppola Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay Oscar nominations.

Also released that year, The Godfather: Part II (1974), rivaled the success of The Godfather (1972), and won six Academy Awards, bringing Coppola Oscars as a producer, director and writer.

Coppola also produced the second film that Lucas directed, American Graffiti (1973), in 1973. This movie got five Academy Award nominations, including one for Best Picture.

Francis Ford Coppola has been in competition with Bob Fosse on several occasions. In 1972, Coppola was nominated for the Best Director Oscar (The Godfather (1972)), but lost to Fosse (Cabaret (1972)). In 1974, Fosse was nominated for Best Director (Lenny (1974)) but lost to Coppola (The Godfather: Part II (1974)). In 1979, both were nominated as directors (Apocalypse Now (1979) and All That Jazz (1979)), but both lost. When Fosse won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival (Coppola won the previous year), he tied with Akira Kurosawa, whose movie was produced by George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola.

In 1971, Coppola's film The Godfather (1972) became one of the highest-grossing movies in history and brought him an Oscar for writing the screenplay with Mario Puzo The film was a Best Picture Academy Award-winner, and also brought Coppola a Best Director Oscar nomination.

Out of all his peers who rose to fame and power in the 1970s "Golden Age" era, he is perhaps the only filmmaker still married to his first wife.

In 1969, Coppola and George Lucas established American Zoetrope, an independent film production company based in San Francisco. The company's first project was THX 1138 (1971), produced by Coppola and directed by Lucas.

Received an M.F.A. in Film Production from the University of California in Los Angeles (1967).

During the next four years, Coppola was involved in a variety of script collaborations, including writing an adaptation of "This Property is Condemned" by Tennessee Williams (with Fred Coe and Edith Sommer), and screenplays for Is Paris Burning? (1966) and Patton (1970), the film for which Coppola won a Best Original Screenplay Academy Award.

In 1966, Coppola's 2nd film brought him critical acclaim and a Master of Fine Arts degree.

He was training as assistant with filmmaker Roger Corman, working in such capacities as sound-man, dialogue director, associate producer and, eventually, director of Dementia 13 (1963), Coppola's first feature film.

Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume Two, 1945- 1985". Pages 227-234. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1988.

His wife arranged for him to meet Jane Powell as a 40th birthday present.

Francis Ford Coppola was born in 1939 in Detroit, Michigan, but grew up in a New York suburb in a creative, supportive Italian-American family. His father, Carmine Coppola, was a composer and musician. His mother, Italia Coppola (née Pennino), had been an actress. Francis Ford Coppola graduated with a degree in drama from Hofstra University, and did graduate work at UCLA in filmmaking.

Was voted the 21st Greatest Director of all time by Entertainment Weekly.