Gia Coppola – Success is in her name

For cinema lovers new talent, especially in the way of edgy directors, is hot and exciting news. The Coppola family name has become synonymous with groundbreaking artistic work in cinema and it certainly seems as if this momentous storytelling is in their blood.

Enter Gia Coppola – the granddaughter of Francis Ford Coppola, the pioneer of this genius family. She is the daughter of Gian-Carlo Coppola, a film producer, the eldest child of Francis Ford Coppola, and also the older brother to Roman and Sofia. Roman Ford Coppola, Gia’s uncle, is an American film and music video director, who was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for his 2012 film, Moonrise Kingdom.

The other well-known female in the Coppola family is Sofia Coppola, who has stunned Hollywood with her intuitive eye and mesmerizing filmmaking skills. She is a successful and acclaimed screenwriter, director, producer and actress. In 2003, she won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for her film Lost in Translation, starring Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson, and she also became the third (and the first American) woman to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director.

And did you know that Academy Award-winning actor Nicolas Cage, also known as Nicolas Kim Coppola, is the nephew of Francis Ford Coppola and had changed his name to make his own way in the film business?

With a family like this, it would be hard not to follow in the footsteps of such accomplishment and trademark brilliance. Gia has now also captivated Hollywood with her debut film offering, Palo Alto. The film is an adaption of actor James Franco’s collection of short stories of the same title and premiered in the “Orizzonti” section of the 70^th Venice International Film Festival, as well as the 38^th Toronto International Film Festival and the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado. The film stars James Franco, Emma Roberts and Val Kilmer and tells the story of a group of menacing teens with a weakness for trouble.

This maiden work of Gia has been cited to have many similarities with Sofia’s film The Virgin Suicides for its technique and scope. Palo Alto has been picked up by Tribeca Films for distribution with a release date in May 2014. Whether or not the film fares well critically or at the box office, Gia definitely doesn’t have to worry about finding a place to fit in as the Coppola name unquestionably has a home in Hollywood already.

Pedro Almodovar

Pedro Almodovar is perhaps the best and most well-known Spanish filmmakers of his generation. His films have come to be incredibly important and valuable in the world of art cinema and are marked by their complex narratives that are at times extremely witty and hilariously amusing. He is a fan of employing melodrama and elements of pop culture and glossy décor with his films being a feast for the eyes.

Growing up in an impoverished family in a small town in Spain, he was turned into a part-time teacher of literacy by his mother and when he was sent to a religious boarding school he was introduced to cinema and a world that seemed full of possibility to a young boy with dreams. His career began by making short hand-held films that he showed at a cinema theatre he bought with his first pay check. That was only the beginning and from showing his films at bars and parties, he gained not only the finances but the recognition as a filmmaker to pursue his career.

The key, Pedro says, to the success of his films is that he makes them to be entertaining as filmmakers often forget that that is the purpose of what a film should be – to entertain. Some of his greatest works include Volver, Broken Embraces, and All About My Mother. 

Photographer: Gregory Crewdson

Gregory Crewdson (born September 26, 1962) is an American photographer who is best known for elaborately staged, surreal scenes of American homes and neighborhoods.

The sheer nature and attention to detail used in each of his shoots somehow warrants the exorbitant prices!
See link for details on the $1 Million Photo Shoot!