MOVIE OF THE WEEK October 23, 2026: MAKING MARIE ANTOINETTE
Behind-the-scenes glimpses of movies being made aren’t hard to come by, especially in this all-access age of social media and streaming, but few peeks around the curtain feel as personal as Eleanor Coppola’s Making Marie Antoinette. Edited together from the 80-plus hours of footage that Coppola filmed while on the set of her daughter Sofia’s Oscar-winning 2006 drama Marie Antoinette, it’s both a fascinating document of the filmmaking process and a love letter from a mother to her child.
Making Marie Antoinette isn’t Eleanor Coppola’s first foray into the world of cinema, of course; far from it. Not only did she grow up on and around movie sets, but she apparently had a camera in hand every time she joined one of her filmmaking family members on set, capturing memorable making-of moments from Apocalypse Now, The Virgin Suicides, and more. It’s her comfort in these family-filled spaces (and, paired with that, her level of access, which most documentarians likely wouldn’t get) that gives her films their particular appeal — when she interviews Sofia, she’s a mom as much as a filmmaker, and it makes for very honest moments.
There are also plenty of fun, silly moments (star Kirsten Dunst making faces at the camera, Marianne Faithfull giving Sofia Coppola some pithy life advice), intimate ones (actors nodding off around the set during a very late night, Eleanor worrying about her daughter’s persistent cough), and ones that remind us how lush and gorgeous the Marie Antoinette production was, from top to bottom. The costumes, the wigs, the food — all of it does the lavish Versailles setting justice (even if the scale of it all also gives Sofia and her team headaches).
The film also features voice-over snippets from Coppola’s on-set diary, read by Diane Lane. That choice of narrator is certainly a deliberate one: Lane starred in her feature directorial debut, 2016’s Paris Can Wait, the seeds of which feel like they were likely planted while Coppola was being a fly on the wall in Versailles. According to her journals, Coppola’s enthusiasm for watching her daughter work helped inspire her to make the leap to running her own set, even though she was nearly 80 when filming on Paris Can Wait began. Seen through that lens, Making Marie Antoinette is all the more meaningful, as it captures the origins of Coppola’s big leap even as she’s excitedly capturing her daughter’s talent. — Betsy Bozdech
Team #MOTW’s comments:
Loren King Come for the irresistible behind-the-scenes look at the making of Sofia Coppola’s lavish, weird and wild Marie Antoinette” (2006). Stay for a tender mother-daughter story that’s also about two restless artistic souls finding a common bond. Eleanor Coppola shot the footage on location at the Palace of Versailles in Paris in 2005, just as she documented other Coppola family projects, most famously her husband Francis Ford Coppola’s troubled shoot of Apocalypse Now (1979) which became the acclaimed 1991 documentary Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse. Her daughter Sofia completed Making Marie Antoinette after her mother’s death in 2024. What likely began as Eleanor Coppola’s love letter to her daughter’s creative spirit and determination has now become Sofia’s tribute to her mother’s legacy. Sofia made the compelling artistic choice to use Eleanor’s journals as narration, read by Diane Lane who starred in Eleanor’s 2016 romantic comedy Paris Can Wait,” making her at age 80 the oldest American director ever to make a dramatic feature debut. Eleanor Coppola’s musings on the stresses of making a big-budget, period film; her motherly concern for Sofia; her joy at the support her son Roman provides his sister on the set; and her honest examination about what might have been if she’d followed a more creative path instead of documenting the work of others, adds a personal and poignant layer to Coppola’s magnificent footage.
Leslie Combemale What is wonderful about Eleanor’s film is you get to see, on film, how a female filmmaker has to navigate a crew, in this case one in which a number of them are Frenchmen. You also get a sense of the stress of indie filmmaking – it’s palpable, but so too is the motherlove that steeps every scene with Eleanor at the camera. Everything about moviemaking is clearly a family affair, but never one in which one member question’s another’s taste, perspective, or aesthetic. We are watching filmmaking and collaborations at the same time as we see a level of professional and familial respect that demonstrates the highest form of love.
Jennifer Merin Making Marie Antoinette is a marvelous documentary chronicling the personal and professional relationship of mother and daughter filmmakers, Eleanor Coppola and Sofia Coppola, during the filming of Sofia’s masterpiece, Marie Antoinette. The documentary is a very up close and personal delve into an inspiring mother/daughter relationship as well as a filmmaking primer that puts you on set for the filming of a strategically complex production as it becomes an artistic triumph. Making Marie Antoinette is a cinematic treat for movie aficianados — and mothers and daughters. ENJOY!!!
Liz Whittemore Filmmaker Eleanor Coppola’s camera captured roughly eighty hours of behind-the-scenes footage from the set of her daughter Sofia’s film, Marie Antoinette. Alongside her journal entries, she and Sofia create an intimacy that reaches through the screen and into our hearts. Making Marie Antoinette is an honest love letter to cinema through the very personal lens of shared adoration between a mother and daughter. Elegant extravagance with a rock ‘n’ roll edge, Sofia’s films are equal parts historical accuracy and eye candy. Her attention to detail speaks volumes about her knowledge and passion for her craft. She never lets others’ decisions or questions overwrite her vision. Her quiet confidence is inspiring. You cannot ignore the comparison between Sofia, Kirsten Dunst, and Marie Antoinette, and Eleanor immediately recognizes the thread. Making Marie Antoinette delivers a vulnerability you don’t often witness through traditional press junkets. This documentary is a labor of love far beyond any filmmaking family’s legacy or nepo-baby fodder. It is a delicious treat for fans obsessed with physical media and their coveted special features. More importantly, it explores connection, trust, parenting, regret, and the raw emotion between parent and child.
Monique Jones Eleanor Coppola’s Making Marie Antoinette is not just a love letter to the process of filmmaking in general, but it’s also a look inside the creation process of one of the most prominent woman filmmakers in Hollywood, Eleanor Coppola’s daughter, Sofia Coppola. The documentary is also a loving tribute to the life of Coppola, who died in 2024, and her relationship with Sofia, as well as her son/fellow filmmaker Roman, and the entire Coppola family, including her husband Francis Ford Coppola and nephew Jason Schwartzman. Marie Antoinette is one of my favorite films, and I think Making Marie Antoinette captures how much Sofia related to Marie Antoinette and mirrors her version of the historical figure. Both Sofia and Marie Antoinette, as played by Kirsten Dunst, are unassuming but powerful, shy but bold, and have strong connections with family. Dunst also reflects some of the character’s bewilderment at their newfound power when she discusses the pressures that come with playing the center role of this film. Through it all, Coppola’s eye for catching the filmmaking process as well as her daughter’s struggles and triumphs show how much of a labor of love this film was. Marie Antoinette was also a family affair of the Coppolas, and Making Marie Antoinette serves as a wonderful memorial for Coppola and her love for her family and film.
Cate Marquis Making Marie Antoinette is a behind-the-scenes documentary shot by director Sofia Coppola’s mother, Eleanor, a documentary filmmaker, to document her daughter’s first big budget film, the 2006 historical costume drama Marie Antoinette. A documentary film that started with one intention then becomes something else, a sweet glimpse back in time and inside a family of filmmakers. After shooting the footage, Eleanor’s documentary languished until she returned to it in 2020. After her mother’s death, Sofia Coppola finished her mother’s uncompleted project, adding voice-over narration by Diane Lane, who reads from Eleanor’s journals. The result is something wonderfully touching. The documentary reveals what a family affair this film was, with Sofia casting her cousin Jason Schwartzman as Louis XVI and with her father and brother as executive producers. Sofia’s film was actually shot at Versailles, granted rare permission that speaks to both her perseverance and the power of the Coppola name, so this behind-the-scenes documentary is filled with lavish visuals. It boasts interviews with the young director, star Kirsten Dunst, and others and humorous moments, as well as the moments that Eleanor Coppola says she likes best, the points were “the illusion of the set meets reality,” as the actors step out of camera range into the behind the scenes area. This charming documentary that began with one purpose serves another, as a daughter’s tribute to her mother, as well as a warm, nostalgic “family home movie” about and by a film-making family.
FILM DETAILS:
Title: Making Marie Antoinette
Directors: Eleanor Coppola, Sofia Coppola
Release Date: October 23, 2026
Running Time: 86 minutes
Language: English
Screenwriter: Eleanor Coppola (documentary)
Lead Performers: Eleanor Coppola, Sofia Coppola, Kirsten Dunst, Diane Lane
Distribution Company: Mubi
AWFJ Movie of the Week Panel Members: Sandie Angulo Chen, Betsy Bozdech, Leslie Combemale, Monique Jones, Loren King, Cate Marquis, Jennifer Merin, Nell Minow, Liz Whittemore
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Edited by Jennifer Merin
