Joel and Ethan Coen
Joel and Ethan Coen direct, produce and write their films and are among today’s most honored and respected filmmakers. Joel was honored at the Cannes Film Festival in 2001 as Best Director for The Man Who Wasn’t There, and in 1991 as Best Director for Barton Fink. In 1996, he was honored as Best Director by the New York Film Critics Circle, the National Board of Review, and BAFTA for Fargo. The film, which Joel co-wrote with Ethan who produced, received seven Oscar nominations, winning two including Best Original Screenplay. Joel and Ethan co-wrote the Oscar-nominated and Golden Globe–winning screenplay for O Brother, Where Art Thou?, which Ethan produced.
Other films Joel directed and co-wrote with Ethan, which Ethan produced, are Intolerable Cruelty, The Big Lebowksi, The Hudsucker Proxy, Barton Fink (Palme D’Or/Cannes), Miller’s Crossing, Raising Arizona, and Blood Simple. Joel and Ethan co-directed the 2004 comedy The Ladykillers, again with Ethan producing. The Coens’ 2007 adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men brought them the Directors Guild of America, BAFTA, and Academy Awards for direction; the Golden Globe for Best Screenplay; Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay (New York Film Critics Circle); Oscars for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay; and awards from the National Board of Review. The film’s cast won the Screen Actors Guild Award and Javier Bardem won the SAG Award and the Oscar as Best Supporting Actor. The Coens’ Burn After Reading (2008) was nominated for the BAFTA and the WGA Award for Best Original Screenplay. A Serious Man (2009) received Academy Award nominations for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay and was also nominated for the BAFTA and WGA Awards for Best Original Screenplay. True Grit (2010) received ten Academy Award nominations including Best Picture and Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) was awarded the Grand Prix at the 2013 Cannes Festival.