Eleanor Coppola's Final Documentary 'Making Marie Antoinette' Premieres at Telluride
A mother filmed her daughter directing a $40 million period epic. Twenty years later, that footage has become a documentary in its own right — and a posthumous tribute.
Eleanor Coppola's Making Marie Antoinette premiered at the 53rd Telluride Film Festival on 5 September 2026, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The 86-minute film chronicles Sofia Coppola shooting her 2006 feature Marie Antoinette, which debuted at Cannes that same year. Eleanor Coppola is credited as director, with Sofia listed as a producer.
The story behind the documentary stretches across two decades. In 2006, Eleanor Coppola shot 80 hours of behind-the-scenes footage on the set of Marie Antoinette, a production budgeted at $40 million that, by her own account, overwhelmed her daughter during filming (The Hollywood Reporter). The footage sat largely untouched until the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, when mother and daughter began organising it together.
Eleanor Coppola died in 2024. Sofia Coppola then finished the documentary as a tribute to her mother, completing a project they had shaped side by side during the pandemic months.
The film draws on more than raw footage. Actress Diane Lane reads Eleanor Coppola's diary entries from the period of the shoot, giving the documentary a written-through voice alongside the visual record (The Hollywood Reporter). The documentary also captures the craftsmanship behind the 2006 production, including work by costume designer Milena Canonero, whose credits place her among the most decorated in her field (IndieWire).
There is a family symmetry at work. Eleanor Coppola made her name with Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse (1993), which documented her husband Francis Ford Coppola's legendarily troubled production of Apocalypse Now. Making Marie Antoinette extends that pattern to a second generation — a mother turning her camera on a child at work on a grand, pressure-filled production (The Hollywood Reporter).
MUBI acquired worldwide rights to the film, the distributor confirmed in July 2026 (Variety; Deadline). The theatrical release is set for Friday, 23 October 2026, with streaming on MUBI to follow (IndieWire).
For audiences, that means a relatively quick path from a mountain-festival premiere to a cinema seat — and then to the couch. The film runs 86 minutes. It carries a mother's eye, a daughter's finishing touch, and two decades of waiting in between.
