Nepo Babies of the Week: Baby Coppolas Are Taking Over Cannes

This year, the Cannes Film Festival belongs to the Coppolas.

For nearly 48 hours, my feed has been flooded with breathless, bewildered reviews of Francis Ford Coppola’s bonkers cinematic adventure Megalopolis. More impressive than all the colorful descriptors critics have used to describe this film—including “mad modern masterwork,” “absolute madness,” “truly epic,” and “disastrous folly”—is the Avengers-like collection of Coppolas who have flooded Cannes, alongside other film-industry nepo babies. As always, the Hollywood dynasties are thriving!

Consider Megalopolis itself—a labor of love from not one, not two, but three Coppolas. Francis Ford’s son, Roman Coppola, worked as second unit director on the film, while his granddaughter, famed one-time TikToker and private helicopter maven Romy Croquet Mars, made her three-line acting debut. Romy’s sister (and Sofia Coppola’s younger daughter) Cosima also joined the family on the red carpet, while Roman participated in the film’s much-anticipated press event. Speaking at the presser, Francis Ford insisted that using his own funds to make Megalopolis would not leave his precious progeny destitute.

To reassure whatever clueless hypothetical weirdos who were apparently worried that his extraordinarily family might fall into financial ruin if Megalopolis flops, Coppola told the audience, “My children, without exception, have wonderful careers without a fortune. We are fine. It doesn’t matter. All of you here: The money doesn’t matter. What is important are the friends. A friend will never let you down. The money may evaporate.” Good for them! Spoken like a true aristocrat.

These were not the only Coppolas at Cannes this year, either; secret Coppola Nicolas Cage (Francis Ford’s nephew) also has a film debuting in a midnight screening at the French festival. The Surfer, from director Lorcan Finnegan, is a psychological thriller about a man who, according to the festival’s description, “returns to the idyllic beach of his childhood to surf with his son, but is humiliated by a group of powerful locals and drawn into a conflict that rises with the punishing heat of the summer and pushes him right to his breaking point.”

A teaser clip from the film features a classic Cage-ian freakout, as Hollywood’s most famous scenery chomper loses his shit while trying to get his surfboard back. “Dude, that’s my board, and I want it back,” he says, gritting his teeth and staring into the sun while the strangers holding his board hostage claim it’s been sitting on their shelf for seven years. Then, he asks the question that pretty much every one of his movies inspires: “What the fuck is this?!” Whatever it is, I will be seated!

On the opposite side of the seasonal spectrum, Cannes is also debuting Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point, a nostalgic holiday film from director Tyler Taormina that features on-screen performances from both Sawyer Spielberg (Steven Spielberg’s son) and Martin Scorsese’s granddaughter, Francesca. The children of our most famous living directors are really feasting this year!

Sawyer Spielberg has notched a few on-screen roles in his career, including in the deeply disturbing, hallucinogenic horror film Honeydew. He’s also collaborated with his father on a number of productions including the miniseries Masters of the Air (in which he played Lt. Roy Claytor); Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (in which he worked as an “additional crew” member); and The Post (in which he played a protester). Francesca Scorsese, meanwhile, made her first film appearances as a young girl in her father’s films The Aviator and The Departed. Last year, she staged her Cannes directorial debut with the short film “Fish Out of Water.”

In Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point, Francesca plays a teenager named Michelle who makes a plan to sneak out after dinner for a joy ride with friends. Meanwhile, Spielberg plays a burnout character named “Splint.” According to IndieWire’s David Ehrlich, however no one seems to call him that “during the 25 seconds that he’s on screen.” Despite the extremely limited screen time he apparently receives, Spielberg’s name has made it into pretty much every review I’ve seen of the film. I wonder why!

And finally, rounding out our nepo baby takeover, there’s Chiara Mastroianni—daughter of Catherine Deneuve and famed Italian actor Marcello Mastroianni—in Christophe Honoré’s Marcello Mio. The comedy feature finds Chiara and her mother playing versions of themselves as Chiara confronts her father’s legacy. “During a summer that sees her reality fall into disarray,” the festival’s description reads, “Chiara decides to live as her father. She dresses like him. She speaks like him. She breathes like him. Chiara’s impersonation is so convincing that people around her begin to believe. They call her ‘Marcello.’”

At least this nepo baby’s got a sense of humor about it! But can self-awareness earn a Palme d’Or? We’ll have to wait and see.

Check out our past Nepo Babies of the Week.