[3][4] Her parents are filmmakers Eleanor and Francis Ford Coppola, and she made her acting debut as an infant in her father's acclaimed crime drama The Godfather (1972).

Coppola later appeared in several music videos and had a supporting role in the fantasy comedy film Peggy Sue Got Married (1986).

[16] Coppola had many varying interests growing up, including fashion, photography, music, and design, and did not initially intend to become a filmmaker.

However, after making her first short film Lick the Star in 1998, she realized it "brought together all the things [she] loved", and decided to continue her directing pursuits.

[17] Coppola's acting career, marked by frequent criticisms of nepotism and negative reviews,[18][19] began while she was an infant, as she made background appearances in eight of her father's films.

[20][21] Coppola also acted in her father's films The Outsiders (1983), in a scene where Matt Dillon, Tommy Howell, and Ralph Macchio are eating at a Dairy Queen; Rumble Fish (1983); The Cotton Club (1984); and Peggy Sue Got Married (1986), in which she portrayed Kathleen Turner's sister Nancy.

[22] Frankenweenie (1984) was the first film Coppola performed in that was not associated with her father, however, it often goes unnoticed due to her stage name "Domino", which she adopted at the time because she thought it was glamorous.

Specifically, Coppola has highlighted the representation of teenagers "lazing around", a situation she connected with but felt was not seen very much in films in any relatable way.

[17] The film stars actors Danny DeVito, Kirsten Dunst, Scott Glenn, Josh Hartnett, Michael Paré, Jonathan Tucker, Kathleen Turner, and James Woods.

[40] Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian declared, "Sofia Coppola's presentation of Marie's life has a sisterly, unjudging intimacy, and the director has carried off pert inventions and provocations with some style, combining dazzling visual tableaux and formal set-pieces in strict period, with new wave chart hits from the 1970s and 80s: these musical anachronisms lending ironic torsion to the overall effect.

[42] Coppola was interested in making an emotional connection to the young royalty whose "coming-of-age took place under conditions familiar to a pampered zoo animal".

The plot focuses on a "bad boy" actor Marco (portrayed by Stephen Dorff) who is forced to reevaluate his life when his daughter Cleo (played by Elle Fanning) arrives unexpectedly.

[47] Somewhere depicts a newly famous actor (Stephen Dorff) recuperating from a minor injury whose wealth, fame, and professional experiences cannot alleviate the existential crisis he is experiencing, as he is forced to care for his 11-year-old daughter in the absence of his wife.

[53][54] It was inspired by a Vanity Fair feature on the real-life criminals depicted in the film,[55] whom Coppola described as "products of our growing reality TV culture".

[58] Coppola directed The Beguiled (2017), a remake of the 1971 eponymous Southern Gothic film, starring Nicole Kidman, Elle Fanning, and Kirsten Dunst.

[2][3] The film is based on the 1966 book of the same name by author Thomas P. Cullinan about a wounded Union soldier in a Mississippi seminary during the American Civil War,[60] and was made for under $10 million.

Coppola has said that she "wanted the film to represent an exaggerated version of all the ways women were traditionally raised there just to be lovely and cater to men—the manners of that whole world, and how they change when the men go away".

[60] Coppola wanted to tell the story of the male soldier entering into a classically southern and female environment from the point of view of the women and represent what that was like for them.

The Beguiled was also made as a contrast to The Bling Ring, and Coppola has explained that she needed to correct that film's harsh Los Angeles aesthetic with something more beautiful and poetic.

[60] Coppola's film, On the Rocks,[62][63] tells the story of a daughter and father, played by Rashida Jones and Bill Murray respectively, as they explore New York together in an attempt to mend their fractured relationship.

[67] Some critics stated that the film "isn't destined to achieve the same kind of iconic status as some of Coppola's previous work".

[75] David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter wrote, "Coppola has always been a filmmaker who coaxes out feelings rather than blasts them with emphatic declarations, and the nuanced restraint of her writing and direction here are very much points in Priscilla's favor.

"[77] In the mid-1990s, Coppola and her best friend Zoe Cassavetes helmed the short-lived Comedy Central series Hi Octane, which spotlit performers in underground music.

[81] In 2022, Coppola guest-starred as herself, alongside her husband Thomas Mars and fellow director Jim Jarmusch, in an episode of the FX horror comedy series What We Do in the Shadows.

In 1994,[83] she co-founded the clothing line Milk Fed in Japan, with her friend Stephanie Hayman in cooperation with Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon.

[85][86] In 2017, before Coppola started pre-production on The Beguiled, she was asked by Italian state broadcaster Rai Com from All'Opera to direct their latest production of La Traviata.

[88] Discussing her modern take on this classic story Coppola says "I wanted to bring out the personal side of the French courtesan, the party girl used to the social scene.

[88] Coppola discusses how Valentino "really motivated me to take a chance and do something that was scary for me and very unfamiliar," and promised a "traditional" production that could nevertheless be appreciated by those who are not opera connoisseurs.

[100] Coppola has maintained a low public profile for her family, aiming for her daughters' lives to be unaffected by her career and travel.

[4] In 2016, Coppola's musical comedy special A Very Murray Christmas earned her a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Movie.