At the 80th Annual Academy Awards on Sunday, February 24 the best directing Oscar went to alumnus Joel Coen 78 and his brother Ethan for No Country for Old Men (2007).
At the 80th Annual Academy Awards on Sunday, February 24 the best directing Oscar went to alumnus Joel Coen 78 and his brother Ethan for No Country for Old Men (2007). This marks the third year in a row an NYU alumnus from the Tisch School of the Arts Kanbar Institute of Film & Television has won the award. Last year, Martin Scorsese 64 & 68 was tapped for The Departed (2006), and the year before Ang Lee 84 picked it up for Brokeback Mountain (2005).
In all, No Country for Old Men, written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen won four Oscars-best picture, directing, supporting actor, and adapted screenplay. TSOA alumni who were Oscar nominees this year were Tamara Jenkins 94, for her original screenplay for Savages, and Philip Seymour Hoffman 89, for supporting actor in Charlie Wilsons War. Last year, Michael Arndt 87 won the original screenplay Oscar for Little Miss Sunshine.
In 2004, alumnus Jim Taylor 96 won adapted screenplay for Sideways, while Charlie Kaufman 80 won original screenplay for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Keir Pearson 97 was a nominee for his original screenplay for Hotel Rwanda.