Writer, director and producer, Francis Ford Coppola is in the pantheon of great American filmmakers. He is the poster boy for New Hollywood-a movement that brought about unconventional ideas that challenged contemporary filmmaking. His films have pushed the envelope in every way. With The Godfather, he revolutionized the gangster flick from a simple, violent spectacle to a portrayal of mobsters with psychological depth and complexity. In Apocalypse Now, he risked financial disaster to give us not only one of the most haunting, lasting visions of the Vietnam War, but captured the sentiment of an entire nation. At UCLA, he earned a Master of Fine Art in Film and would go on to epitomize the ethos of UCLA’s School of Film, Theater and Television: that you can achieve great commercial success, but do it with a core of independence and the passion of a personal filmmaker.