Joel and Ethan Coen preside over the Jury of the 68th Festival de Cannes
Palme d'or laureates in 1991, the Coen brothers are part of the Festival's history. Since Raising Arizona (1987), their second film, they have been invited into the Official Selection and have presented nine of their films, often winning the most prestigious prizes: the Palme d'or in 1991 for Barton Fink; the Award for Best Director in 1996 for Fargo as well as for The Man Who Wasn't There in 2001.
And in 2013, Inside Llewyn Davis won the Grand Prix, from Steven Spielberg. From New York, where Joel studied film, the Coen brothers have become the embodiment of independent cinema, and let's not forget that they have collaborated since their first film, Blood Simple in 1984, which won the Grand Prix at Sundance Film Festival.
After Miller's Crossing and Raising Arizona, both critically acclaimed, it was Barton Fink which brought international recognition. The brothers asserted their talent and originality in films such as Fargo, which was extremely popular with audiences, The Big Lebowski, which has acquired cult status with many film lovers, and O'Brother, Where Art Thou, which gave George Clooney his first big comedy role.
They always work together on films, for which Ethan (himself an author, with a short story collection, Gates of Eden, published in 1998 and newly re-edited in France) is the producer and Joel the director, and since 2004 they have credited themselves together for the script, directing, editing, and production, reinforcing the image of a kind of cinema as personal as it is brotherly.
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