Sofia Coppola Cancels ‘Priscilla’ Appearance at NYFF Premiere Last-Minute To Be With Her Mother

Sofia Coppola missed a New York Film Festival appearance for Priscilla to spend time with her mother Eleanor Coppola, and is expected to be absent from the Q&A and extended introduction for the movie’s public premiere at the festival.

Coppola was previously announced as a special guest at two Oct. 6 public screenings of the movie, as it is a Centerpiece title at the festival and will also be making its North American debut after premiering at the 80th International Venice Film Festival.

As of now, the festival’s website lists Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi as guests for the showings. 

Producer Youree Henley read a statement on behalf of Coppola at a press conference ahead of the public showings. “I’m so proud to have our film at the New York Film Festival in my hometown. There’s nothing more inspiring to me than seeing a film on a screen at Alice Tully Hall,” Henley read at the start of the conference.

“When I saw The Power of the Dog here, as the first film on a screen since the pandemic, it reminded me of the power of cinema and what we love about the communal experience,” Coppola’s statement continued.

“I’m so sorry to not be there with you, but I’m with my mother, to whom this film is dedicated. Thank you to my great team who helped make this film. Thank you to the New York Film Festival, Dennis Lim and A24.”

Decider reached out to New York Film Festival reps for more information, who offered: “Per Film at Lincoln Center, Sofia’s statement speaks for itself and they have nothing further to add.”

Coppola’s mother is Eleanor Coppola, a filmmaker married to five-time Academy Award winner Francis Ford Coppola. The couple met on the set of Dementia 13 in 1962, and went on to collaborate on Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse, a documentary about the creation of Francis’s Apocalypse Now. Eleanor’s filmography also includes Paris Can Wait and Love is Love is Love. She is 87.

Prior to the press conference was a screening of Priscilla, a biographical drama based on Priscilla Presley’s 1985 memoir Elvis and Me. The movie follows the tumultuous relationship between Priscilla – who was a freshman in high school when she began being courted by Elvis – and the famed singer. In press notes provided by A24, Coppola spoke about her attraction to the source material, saying, “I found it to be a kind of Alice in Wonderland, a girl’s journey into an unimaginable fantasy and how she comes out the other end seeing things more clearly.”

During the event, Elordi opened up about playing Elvis Presley and acing the singer’s signature baritone. “If you want to see an Elvis impersonator, go to Vegas. I think it was about catching the essence of his purpose, and trying to identify and find the human being under all the glitz, the gold, the voice, the caricatures, and all these things,” the actor shared. 

Priscilla releases in theaters on November 3, 2023. The movie screens at the New York Film Festival on Friday, October 6 at 6 pm, 6:15 pm, 6:30 pm, 6:45 pm, 9 pm, 9:15 pm, 9:30 pm, 9:45 pm; Sunday, October 8 at 6 pm; Sunday, October 15 at 12 pm.