Joel and Ethan Coen, the brothers who have written and directed a string of hits including Fargo, True Grit and No Country for Old Men are to head up the jury for the 2015 Cannes film festival. The pair said in a statement:
We look forward to returning to Cannes this year. We welcome as always the opportunity to watch movies there from all over the world. Cannes is a festival that has been important to us since the very beginning of our career. Presiding over the Jury is a special honor, since we have never heretofore been president of anything. We will issue further proclamations at the appropriate time.
It’s the first time the festival will have had two people leading the jury.
Cannes has long been a supporter of their work – they were awarded the Palme d’Or in 1991 for Barton Fink, the Grand Prix in 2013 for Inside Llewyn Davis, and two best director prizes, for Fargo and The Man Who Wasn’t There.
The Coens are currently filming Hail, Caesar!, a return to the screwball comedy of previous films like Intolerable Cruelty and The Big Lebowski. Set amid 1950s Hollywood and concerning “the movie business and life and religion and faith”, it is said to focus on a ‘fixer’ who keeps stars out of scandal. It features their starriest cast for some time, with George Clooney taking top billing alongside Josh Brolin, Channing Tatum, Tilda Swinton, Ralph Fiennes, Scarlett Johansson and Jonah Hill. Their most recent work meanwhile was the script for Angelina Jolie’s prisoner of war drama Unbroken.
