The Coen Brothers

Joel and Ethan Coen, also known as the Coen Brothers, were nominated for an Oscar for the 2010 Academy Awards.

The Coen Brothers were nominated for:

• Best Picture - “A Serious Man” Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
• Producers and Writing (Original Screenplay) "A Serious Man" Written by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen.

The duo has been nominated for an Oscar ten times with two of those times being under their alias, Rodrick Jaynes. They have won two Oscars for screenwriting, one for an original screenplay for the movie Fargo and one for an adapted screenplay for No Country for Old Men. They also won awards for Best Achievement in Directing and Best Picture for No Country for Old Men. Other Oscar nominations were for Barton Fink (three), Fargo (seven), O Brother Where Art Thou? (two), The Man Who Wasn't There (one), No Country for Old Men (eight) and A Serious Man (two).

A 2009 movie, Joel and Ethan Coen write, produce and direct this black comedy set in 1967. The film stars Michael Stuhlbarg, Sari Lennick, Fred Melamed, and Richard Kind. A Midwestern physics professor’s stable life begins to come undone when his wife tells him she is leaving him for his colleague. In addition to that, Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg) has to put up with is socially incompetent brother who lives in his house. Until now his life has been rather ordinary but things are about to change. Larry does his best to deal with his unsuccessful marriage and putting up with his unemployed brother, Arthur. His son is getting into trouble at school and his daughter is taking money from him for plastic surgery. A graduate student is trying to bribe him all the while threatening him with a defamation lawsuit. Larry resorts to seeking counsel from three trusted rabbis to help him get his life in order.http://www.fandango.com/aseriousman_v395678/summary

The Coen brothers grew up in St. Louis Park, Minnesota with their parents, Edward and Rena Coen, who were professors. When they were kids they would remake movies they saw on TV with their Vivtar super 8 camera. After graduating from NYU Joel worked as a production assistant on a variety of industrial films and music videos. He then met Sam Raimi who gave him a job as an assistant editor on his first feature film The Evil Dead (1981). Their first film together was Blood Simple in 1984 which they wrote and directed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Coen_Brothers

The Coen Brothers, Joel and Ethan Coen, are collaborative filmmakers known for their unique interpretation of classic movie genres, especially that of film noir.

Their works range from cult films like Raising Arizona and the increasingly acclaimed The Big Lebowski to Academy Award-winners Fargo and No Country for Old Men. After winning a screenwriting Oscar for Fargo in 1997, the brothers won that award again as well as awards for Best Director and Best Picture in 2008 for No Country. Their film Burn After Reading premiered at the Venice Film Festival and was released in theaters on September 12, 2008.

It was announced in March 2009 that the Coens would remake John Wayne's iconic film True Grit, but that they would adhere more closely to the original Charles Portis novel than the 1969 film.Variety: Coen brothers to adapt 'True Grit' (March 23, 2009) Rooster Cogburn will be played by Jeff Bridges, James Brolin would play Tom Chaney, a hired-hand who kills his boss Frank Ross and Damon would play a lawman who joins Cogburn and Mattie in their trek to find Chaney in unfriendly Indian territory. Mattie, 14 year old daughter of Frank Ross has not yet been cast. The release date is set for December 25, 2010.http://www.collider.com/2009/10/26/the-coen-brothers-think-matt-damon-and-josh-brolin-have-true-grit/

In February 2009 the Coen brothers directed an advertisement for the Reality Campaign. The ad features a salesman promoting the new "clean coal" air freshener. As the family in the ad gets inundated with the smell and pollution from the can of air freshener, the commercial ends with the message that there is no such thing as clean coal.Huffington Post: Coen Brothers Direct New "Clean Coal" Ad (February 26, 2009)

• Note: The majority of the links in this timeline are to IMDb, which has pop-ups.

• Born: Joel - November 29, 1954 | Ethan - September 21, 1957

• 1984 Blood Simple: IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes

• 1987 Raising Arizona: IMDb | Mahalo | Rotten Tomatoes

• 1990 Miller's Crossing: IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes

• 1991 Barton Fink: IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes

• 1994 The Hudsucker Proxy: IMDb | Mahalo | Rotten Tomatoes

• 1996 Fargo: IMDb | Mahalo Rotten Tomatoes

• 1998 The Big Lebowski: IMDb | Mahalo | Rotten Tomatoes

• 2000 O Brother, Where Art Thou?: IMDb | Mahalo | Rotten Tomatoes

• 2001 The Man Who Wasn't There: IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes

• 2003 Intolerable Cruelty: IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes

• 2004 Ladykillers: IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes

• 2006 Segment "Tuileries" of Paris Je T'aime: IMDb | Mahalo | Rotten Tomatoes

• 2007 No Country for Old Men: IMDb | Mahalo | Rotten Tomatoes

• 2008 Burn After Reading: IMDb | Mahalo | Rotten Tomatoes

• 2009 Gambit: IMDb | Rotten Tomatoes