Francis Ford Coppola’s star-studded, largely self-funded, 40-years-in-the-making passion project arrives at MIFF in all its loopy, maximalist glory.

In the decaying future metropolis New Rome, the playboy, architect and Nobel Prize–winning scientist Cesar Catilina (Adam Driver) has the power to stop time and a grandiose dream: to build a glittering new utopia out of an indestructible yet highly pliable substance, Megalon, that he has invented. Standing in his way are a cadre of small-minded men: conservative mayor Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito), mega-banker Crassus (Jon Voight) and Cesar’s ruthlessly ambitious cousin Clodio (Shia LaBeouf). When not caught between social-climbing reporter Wow Platinum (Aubrey Plaza, who also appears in My Old Ass, MIFF 2024) and Cicero’s socialite daughter Julia (Nathalie Emmanuel), Cesar seeks to transform his dreams into reality and save a decadent empire from its own downfall.

Coppola’s out-of-control ‘fable’ is steeped in the Roman Empire, Shakespeare, Dickens, even The Fountainhead, but its genesis is the stuff of modern-day moviemaking myth. The titan behind The Godfather (1972; MIFF 1997), The Conversation (MIFF 1974) and Apocalypse Now invested over $120 million of his own money into the production when no studios would dare bankroll its uncompromising vision and mega-scale ambition – thereby affording him unparalleled creative freedom. Dedicated to Coppola’s recently departed wife Eleanor, Megalopolis looms as an indelible final vision from the 85-year-old auteur.

“A great American director returns with an ambitious vision of a city – and a world – in need of renewal … By turns aggressively heady, stubbornly illogical, and beguilingly optimistic.” – New Yorker

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This screening of Megalopolis is 100% sold out. Please note that there will not be a standby queue at this session.