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).

Joel Coen and Ethan Coen pose with Oscar® winner Martin Scorsese backstage during the 80th Annual Academy Awards at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, CA on Sunday, February 24, 2008. credit: Matt Petit / ©A.M.P.A.S.
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen pose with Oscar® winner Martin Scorsese backstage during the 80th Annual Academy Awards at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, CA on Sunday, February 24, 2008. credit: Matt Petit / ©A.M.P.A.S.

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 Wilson’s 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.

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