The Coen Brothers

Joel Coen (Director/Writer/Producer)

Joel Coen was honored by the Cannes International Film Festival in 2001, as Best Director for The Man Who Wasn’t There, and in 1991, as Best Director for Barton Fink. He was honored as Best Director by the New York Film Critics Circle, the National Board of Review, and the BAFTA Awards for 1996’s Fargo; and also won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Fargo, which he co-wrote with his brother Ethan.

The screenplay for O Brother, Where Art Thou?,also co-written with Ethan, was nominated for a BAFTA Award and the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Other films that he has directed and co-written are Intolerable Cruelty; The Big Lebowski; The Hudsucker Proxy; Miller’s Crossing; Raising Arizona;and Blood Simple.

He co-directed and co-wrote the 2004 comedy The Ladykillers with Ethan. Joel and Ethan Coen’s most recent film is their adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men.Among their honors for the latter were the Directors Guild of America, BAFTA, and Academy Awards; the Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay; Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay from the New York Film Critics Circle; and Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay from the

Oscars and the National Board of Review. The film’s cast was voted the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, and Javier Bardem won the Screen Actors Guild and Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor, among other accolades.

Ethan Coen (Director/Writer/Producer)

Ethan Coen has produced and co-written such critically acclaimed films as Miller’s Crossing, Barton Fink, which won the Palme d’Or [Best Picture], Best Director, and Best Actor (John Turturro) Awards at the 1991 Cannes International Film Festival; and O Brother, Where Art Thou?, which was nominated for two Academy Awards, five BAFTA Awards, and two Golden Globe Awards (winning one).

One of 1996’s most honored films, Fargo, which he produced and co-wrote, received seven Academy Award nominations and won two, including Best Original Screenplay for Ethan and his brother Joel. Among the other films that he has co-written and produced are Blood Simple; Raising Arizona; The Hudsucker Proxy; The Big Lebowski; The Man Who Wasn’t There;and Intolerable Cruelty.

He co-directed and co-wrote the 2004 comedy The Ladykillers with Joel. Joel and Ethan Coen’s most recent film is their adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men. Among their honors for the latter were the Directors Guild of America, BAFTA, and Academy and Awards; the Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay; Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay from the New York Film Critics Circle; Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay from the Oscars and the National Board of Review; The film’s cast was voted the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, and Javier Bardem won the Screen Actors Guild and Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor, among other accolades.

Almost an Evening,comprising three short plays by Ethan Coen, was staged earlier this year off-Broadway by Neil Pepe at the Atlantic Theater Company’s Stage 2 and then at the Bleecker Street Theater; in spring 2009, the same director and company will stage his three new short plays under the title Offices.