Coen brothers

"Ethan Coen" redirects here. Not to be confused with Ethan Cohen or Etan Cohen.
"Joel Coen" redirects here. Not to be confused with Joel Cohen.

Coen brothers
Ethan (left) and Joel Coen, at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival
Born
Joel Daniel Coen
(1954-11-29) November 29, 1954 (age 69)
Ethan Jesse Coen
(1957-09-21) September 21, 1957 (age 67)

St. Louis Park, Minnesota, U.S. (both)
Other names
  • Coen brothers
  • Roderick Jaynes
  • Reginald Jaynes
  • Mike Zoss
EducationSt. Louis Park High School
Alma materJoel: New York University (BFA)
Bard College at Simon's Rock (AA)
Ethan: Princeton University (BA)
Bard College at Simon's Rock (AA)
Occupations
  • Film directors
  • producers
  • screenwriters
  • editors
Years active1984–present
Spouse(s)Joel: Frances McDormand (m. 1984)
Ethan: Tricia Cooke (m. 1990)
ChildrenJoel: 1
Ethan: 2

Joel Daniel Coen (born November 29, 1954)[1] and Ethan Jesse Coen (born September 21, 1957),[2] together known as the Coen brothers (/ˈkoʊən/), are an American filmmaking duo. Their films span many genres and styles, which they frequently subvert or parody.[3] 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 Palme d'Or 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.[4] 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.[5] In 1998, the American Film Institute (AFI) ranked Fargo among the 100 greatest American movies.[6] 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."[7]

  1. ^ "UPI Almanac for Friday, Nov. 29, 2019". United Press International. November 29, 2019. Archived from the original on December 24, 2019. Retrieved January 11, 2020. …filmmaker Joel Coen in 1954 (age 65)
  2. ^ State of Minnesota. Minnesota Birth Index, 1935–2002. Minnesota Department of Health.
  3. ^ Austerlitz, Saul (December 19, 2010). "Joel and Ethan Coen: A study in subversion". The Boston Globe. Retrieved July 3, 2016.
  4. ^ Jaffe, Ira. "Hollywood Hybrids: Mixing Genres in Contemporary Films". Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2007.
  5. ^ "The 21st Century's 100 greatest films". BBC. August 23, 2016. Retrieved January 31, 2017.
  6. ^ "AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies". American Film Institute. Archived from the original on October 8, 2019. Retrieved July 26, 2021.
  7. ^ Richard Corliss. "ALL-TIME 100 Movies: Miller's Crossing". Time.