The New York Times-20080128-Directors Acclaim Coen Brothers- -Brief-

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Directors Acclaim Coen Brothers; [Brief]

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Joel and Ethan Coen woke up on Sunday as the favorites for the Academy Award for directing after being chosen best directors by the Directors Guild of America on Saturday night in Los Angeles for their latter-day western, No Country for Old Men, Reuters reported. Since the guild began honoring directors in 1949, only six of its choices have failed to win the Oscar . It's nice to get the acknowledgment of critics and even audiences, but there is something about being acknowledged by people who do the same thing you do, said Joel Coen, above right, who has joined his brother, in cowboy hat, in making films like Fargo and Blood Simple in the last 25 years. The last time the guild honored two men as best feature-film directors was 1961, when the winners were Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins for West Side Story. No Country for Old Men has been nominated for eight Academy Awards.

[Illustration]PHOTO (PHOTOGRAPH BY RICHARD FOREMAN/MIRAMAX FILMS)