Cannes Film Festival Awards Director Award to a Woman for the First Time in 56 Years

The director Sofia Cappola wins the Best Director Award for her film Beguiled at the Cannes Film Festival, becoming the only the second woman to receive the prize in  festival’s 70 year history. Cappola is an American screenwriter, producer, director and actor, famed for directing Somewhere (2010), Lost in Translation (2003) and Marie Antoinette (2006). Her father, the producer and director Francis Ford Coppola, was also recognized by Cannes winning the 1974 Palme d’Or prize for his film The Conversation, yet is better known for directing The Godfather (1972) and Apocalypse Now (1979).