Joel and Ethan Coen are two of the most respected independent filmmakers working for the screen today, known for their skills writing, directing, editing and producing films such as Fargo, The Big Leboski, Blood Simple and No Country For Old Men. They have been nominated for 12 Academy Awards, winning Best Original Screenplay for Fargo and Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay for No Country For Old Men.

Born in Minnesota, the Coen brothers studied film in New York before moving on to filmmaking in the early 1980s. The brothers made their debut with the film Blood Simple in 1984, which established them as stylish directors in the film noir genre that pay homage to classic American movies whilst still having a postmodern aesthetic.

The Coen brothers followed up with the black comedy Raising Arizona (1987) which established them with audiences and the Hollywood system, Miller’s Crossing (1990) a gangster flick with John Turturro, who also starred in their seminal classic, Barton Fink (1991).

The Hudsucker Proxy followed in 1994, and whilst not achieving commercial success, it further cemented their noir vision, which hot target the following year with Fargo (1996), a black comedy with violent scenes and redemptive themes that saw them win the an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, and Best Actress.

The cult classic The Big Lebowski followed in 1998 with Jeff Bridges, O Brother Where Art Thou with George Clooney in 2000, The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001), and other notables like No Country For Old Men (2007), and True Grit (2010).

The Coen brothers films mix intelligent, complex storylines with film noir, black humour and memorable characters and for three decades now they have been at the vanguard of some of the strangest, offbeat and powerful films in Hollywood.

FILMOGRAPHY

2013 Inside Llewyn Davis
2010 True Grit
2009 A Serious Man
2008 Burn After Reading
2007 To Each His Own Cinema (segment “World Cinema”)
2007 No Country for Old Men
2006 Paris, je t’aime (segment “Tuileries”)
2004 The Ladykillers
2003 Intolerable Cruelty
2001 The Man Who Wasn’t There
2000 O Brother, Where Art Thou?
1998 The Big Lebowski
1996 Fargo
1994 The Hudsucker Proxy
1991 Barton Fink
1990 Miller’s Crossing
1987 Raising Arizona
1984 Blood Simple.