With the amount of press and marketing in the last several weeks, it would be hard to not know that Sofia Coppola’s newest film, Priscilla, has just landed in theaters. However, what is perhaps not expected is that Coppola is now explaining to several outlets that it was hard to get the amount of financial support needed to complete the film as she intended. This may be hard to believe because she comes from a famous Hollywood family headed by another famous director, Francis Ford Coppola. Alas, as it stands in the current state of the film industry, the culture focuses more on male-led films regardless of what audiences might prefer. .
What makes the lack of financial support for Coppola even stranger is that she is a long established heavy hitter in the industry. Sofia Coppola is one of only seven women to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director – her nomination at the age of 32 was for the film Lost in Translation. In that same year, she went on to win Best Original Screenplay for the film. So the fear of making less profit with a film under her watchful gaze really makes no sense.
This specific discrepancy may also be a reaction to an Elvis-centric biopic being the talk of the town last year. People at home can see this through the fact that it’s become a point of conversation to compare the actors who have recently played Elvis. It’s the media that put Elvis on a pedestal to the point that it makes it hard to remember that there were other people around him who have stories to be told. This mentality of thinking about the male lead in a film more intensely than female leads is nothing that hasn’t been seen before. Still, it shows that the conversations that are being had in the industry enable behavior that Coppola has now mentioned throughout her press tour for Priscilla.
Another explanation some have offered for the reason behind why she can’t get more funding is that a woman would go to a film with a lot of men present, however a man wouldn’t see a film with a multitude of women present. This is a sign of misogyny that was created due to the old ideology that men are inherently the most important in the room. Coppola has touched on this ideal indirectly in Priscilla, although some may think it should be discarded because it isn’t true.
However, in my opinion, directors like Coppola should be able to make the films they want because with Coppola’s niche being women at the precipice of moving through big stages of life, she is bound to be a thriving director for years to come. Many of us should hope that Priscilla, much like Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, blows the box office out of the water. Though the kind of filmmaking being used is different, these are both films that are being headed by two of the biggest female directors of the century. Their film, alongside others, should become the films that are classics heralded in film classes across the country. This idea starts with the way a movie performs in the movie theater.
Therefore, as all of us enter the holiday season, we should include a trip to the movies. Sofia Coppola is a filmmaker who is making a statement with her films, thus her films should be treated as such through frequent visits to the movie theater to enjoy them.