“I’ve always been drawn to individuals really, people with their own distinctive but identifiable style that no one else has. That’s all I try to do, find my own distinctive way of doing things.”

Sofia Coppola is part of the Hollywood aristocracy - daughter of Francis Ford Coppola, cousin to Nicholas Cage and Jason Schwartzmann and ex-wife of Spike Jonze.  In spite of disastrous film beginnings as an actress, she has subsequently directed just three films, The Virgin Suicides, Lost in Translation and Marie Antoinette, all of which have been critically acclaimed.  This talented young woman was born in 1971 in New York and made her first film appearance as a baby.   Her childhood was spent surrounded by luminaries of America’s film and art world.  She was educated at the California Institute of Arts  and after graduating she began her own clothing company, with a friend, selling clothes to Japan.  She has just had her first child, to a French pop star and is taking a break.