Sofia Coppola Says She Has to Fight for Movie Budgets as a Woman Director

Sofia Coppola is speaking out about gender inequality in filmmaking.

The 52-year-old Oscar-winning director released her newest movie, Priscilla, in October, and has done plenty of press and promotion since.

During a recent interview with BBC News, Sofia explained how she deals with not getting the high budgets her male counterparts in the industry are accustomed to.

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“I just see all these men getting hundreds of millions of dollars, and then I’m fighting for a tiny fraction of that,” she said. “I think it’s just left over from the way the culture of that business is. It’s frustrating, but I’m always fighting to get it, and I’m just happy to get to make my movies independently and find people that believe in them.”

Sofia was given a small $20 million budget for Priscilla. Thus, she was forced to get creative with the production.

“There’s a challenge and a freedom in making things small because if you have a big budget, you have a lot of input from studio executives, and I would never be able to make a movie like that,” she explained. “So, I have that freedom, and then you have to be really crafty, and it was really hard, but I had the best team.”

If you haven’t seen, Sofia Coppola addressed a rumor that Lana Del Rey almost starred in Priscilla!