Coen brothers

Joel Daniel Coen (born November 29, 1954) and Ethan Jesse Coen (born September 21, 1957), together known as the Coen brothers (), are an American filmmaking duo. Their films span many genres and styles, which they frequently subvert or parody. Among their most acclaimed works are ''Blood Simple'' (1984), ''Raising Arizona'' (1987), ''Miller's Crossing'' (1990), ''Barton Fink'' (1991), ''Fargo'' (1996), ''The Big Lebowski'' (1998), ''O Brother, Where Art Thou?'' (2000), ''No Country for Old Men'' (2007), ''A Serious Man'' (2009), ''True Grit'' (2010) and ''Inside Llewyn Davis'' (2013).

The brothers generally write, direct and produce their films jointly, although due to DGA regulations, Joel received sole directing credit while Ethan received sole production credit until ''The Ladykillers'' (2004), from which point on they would be credited together as directors and producers; they also shared editing credits under the alias Roderick Jaynes. The duo started directing separately in the 2020s, resulting in Joel's ''The Tragedy of Macbeth'' (2021) and Ethan's ''Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind'' (2022) and ''Drive-Away Dolls'' (2024). They have been nominated for 13 Academy Awards together, plus one individual nomination for each, sharing Best Original Screenplay for ''Fargo'', and Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay for ''No Country for Old Men''. They won the for ''Barton Fink'' at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival.

The Coens have written films for other directors, including Sam Raimi's ''Crimewave'' (1985), Angelina Jolie's World War II biopic ''Unbroken'' (2014) and Steven Spielberg's Cold War drama ''Bridge of Spies'' (2015). They produced Terry Zwigoff's ''Bad Santa'' (2003) and John Turturro's ''Romance and Cigarettes'' (2005). Ethan is also a writer of short stories, theater and poetry.

They are known for their distinctive stylistic trademarks including genre hybridity. ''No Country for Old Men'', ''A Serious Man'' and ''Inside Llewyn Davis'' were included on the BBC's 2016 poll of the greatest motion pictures since 2000. In 1998, the American Film Institute (AFI) ranked ''Fargo'' among the 100 greatest American movies. Richard Corliss wrote of the Coens: "Dexterously flipping and reheating old movie genres like so many pancakes, they serve them up fresh, not with syrup but with a coating of comic arsenic." Provided by Wikipedia