The Eternal Metropolis’s glitterati celebrated Sofia Coppola on Wednesday at an American Academy in Rome gala throughout the seventeenth century Villa Aurelia on Janiculum Hill.
The Oscar-winning director of “Misplaced in Translation,” “Marie Antoinette,” “Bling Ring” and, most currently, “Priscilla” was honored with a McKim Medal that “marks the profound relationship between Italy and america and acknowledges the works of people that’ve contributed to the extraordinary artistic and humanistic dialogue between the two nations,” as a press launch put it.
Coppola’s ties to Rome comprise directing a 2016 manufacturing of Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata on the Italian capital’s Teatro dell’Opera that features costumes by Valentino and the reality that “Priscilla” — which purchased a seven-minute standing ovation at its 2023 Venice Film Competitors premiere — is produced by Rome-based producer Lorenzo Mieli.
Mieli was in attendance along with a combination of excellent film, development, arts, academia and enterprise personalities who mingled throughout the splendid gardens sipping bubbly sooner than transferring proper right into a coated dinner area. These available included Oscar-winning helmer Paolo Sorrentino; Fendi ingenious director Maria Silvia Venturini Fendi; designer Margherita Maccapani Missoni; Roberta Armani, Beatrice Bulgari and Nicola Bulgari; Cinecittà chief Nicola Maccanico; producer Pietro Valsecchi; Italian stars Margherita Buy, Alessandro Preziosi and Miriam Leone; along with directors Paolo Virzì and Ginevra Elkann. Moreover observed: Björk, Chiara Mastroianni and Seydou Sarr and Moustapha Fall, the protagonists of Matteo Garrone’s “Io Capitano.”
New York-based artist Rachel Feinstein, acknowledged for works exploring fantasy realms and the female experience with a contact of a darkness, supplied the medal to Coppola.
“Sofia reveals us the ground, however we actually really feel what lies beneath: female isolation, loneliness and the gradual painful acquisition of information,” Feinstein acknowledged, noting that “Priscilla” opens with dainty ft pushing proper right into a pink plush carpet, and we immediately know that this could be a girl’s story.”
“We keep in extreme cases. One could suppose that the themes of ennui, folly and surprise [in her films] would actually really feel irrelevant and trivial. Nonetheless Sofia’s motion pictures are regarding the battle between prettiness and surprise; boredom and meditation; ground and depth. Our world desires Sofia Coppola’s feminine paintings. We crave it,” Feinstein added.
In her speech, Coppola acknowledged, “The Academy in Rome is constructed on this idea of a gaggle or artists in a lot of mediums having a spot to work and can be found collectively. It’s a spot that Rachel and I’ve talked about and I hoped to go to and be part of someday.”
She added: “It’s always inspiring to be in Rome: city of rather a lot unbelievable paintings and surprise and the home of Cinecittà.”
Earlier recipients of the American Academy in Rome awards embrace Sorrentino, Luca Guadagnino, Roberto Benigni, Franco Zeffirelli, Bernardo Bertolucci, Ennio Morricone, architect Renzo Piano, American artist Cy Twombly, Italian artist Luigi Ontani and Miuccia Prada.
The consideration — dedicated to U.S. architect Charles Follen McKim, who was certainly one of many founders of the American Academy in Rome — was designed by Twombly and handcrafted by Bulgari.
Paolo Sorrentino on the American Academy in Rome gala honoring Sofia Coppola.
Gerardo Gaetani/Courtesy American Academy