Francis Ford Coppola Says It’s ‘Deliberate’ That His Family Members Followed in His Creative Footsteps (Exclusive) 

• Francis Ford Coppola is reflecting on his extended family’s collective success in the filmmaking industry
• Francis, 86, received the 50th AFI Life Achievement Award in Hollywood on Saturday, April 26
• “Whenever I went away for more than a week, I always took my kids out of school, took my family with me,” the Megalopolis filmmaker says

Francis Ford Coppola always wanted to have his family follow in his filmmaking footsteps.

The legendary director spoke with PEOPLE on the red carpet before he received the 50th AFI Life Achievement Award in Hollywood, Calif. on Saturday, April 26, where he spoke to his family’s incredible success in the entertainment industry.

“It was deliberate because when I… I was married 62 years until just this, a year ago, and whenever I went away for more than a week, I always took my kids out of school, took my family with me,” Francis, 86, said, referencing his late wife Eleanor, who died in April 2024 at 87.

Francis famously directed movies like Apocalypse Now and The Godfather trilogy, among others. A number of his family members, including sister Talia Shire, daughter Sofia, son Roman, nephew Nicolas Cage, nephew Jason Schwartzman and granddaughter Gia Coppola, have also held flourishing careers as actors, directors and screenwriters.

The family patriarch tells PEOPLE that he “always invited all of the relatives to sort of have creative summer” each year. “We used to do one-act plays or write songs, and that’s what I think bred this appetite for artistic creation among all the kids is,” Francis adds. “We’re sort of like a Chinese family of jugglers, and the kids learn how to juggle when they’re little.”

Francis’ award marked his second life achievement-type award in recent months. He received a Kennedy Center Honor in Washington, D.C. in December, after he premiered his passion project Megalopolis. His late wife Eleanor was a documentary filmmaker; their daughter Sofia, 53, most recently released a movie with 2023’s Priscilla, while granddaughter Gia’s movie The Last Showgirl opened in January. Son Roman, 60, is a longtime producer, writer and director who frequently collaborates with director Wes Anderson, including on their upcoming movie The Phoenician Scheme.

Coppola’s contemporaries, collaborators and friends of his — George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Harrison Ford, Adam Driver, Ralph Macchio, Ron Howard Andy Garcia C. Thomas Howell included — also attended the event, where many of them gave speeches in Coppola’s honor.

When asked what the respect Francis’ peers hold for him after decades of working in Hollywood, Coppola says, “I was a theater student, and theater is a group activity where you worked together, you rehearse together. Then after the rehearsal, you’d go out together and have pizza together. Cinema was always being locked alone in a room with an editing machine.”

“I think what I did is I brought a more theatrical group feeling to all of those young filmmakers rather than this just be alone and make the film by yourself,” he adds.