Coen Brothers Bring Laughs to Lumière Award Ceremony as Javier Bardem Recalls ‘No Country for Old Men’: ‘They Gave Me One Masterpiece’

Joel and Ethan Coen received the Lumière Award at Lyon’s Lumière Film Festival, marking four decades of filmmaking. The ceremony mixed humour, music and tributes, with Javier Bardem recalling how the brothers persuaded him to take a role he had initially considered turning down.

Bardem said he disliked violence, could not drive and spoke little English, but found the Coens’ laughter reassuring. He praised his part as Anton Chigurh in *No Country for Old Men* as “one masterpiece” and a gift of a lifetime. The evening also featured performances of songs chosen by the filmmakers and festival director Thierry Frémaux’s challenge for them to recreate an early Lumière film.