Coen brothers honoured in Lyon, tease Minneapolis return

Joel and Ethan Coen want to go home again.

The filmmaking brothers accepted a career tribute at Lyon's Lumière Film Festival and used the moment to say they have several stories in the pipeline set in Minneapolis, where they grew up, as reported by Variety.

The honour was the Lumière Award at the 18th edition of the festival. The Lyon event focuses on classic cinema rather than new premieres, according to Deadline. Its chief is Thierry Frémaux, who also heads the Cannes Film Festival.

The night had a family push behind it. Frances McDormand, Joel Coen's wife of 42 years, joined the brothers on stage and urged them to finish what she called an unofficial trilogy started with two of their Minnesota films, Fargo from 1996 and A Serious Man from 2009.

The Coens did not announce a start date or a studio. They said they have kept writing together and hold several unproduced scripts. One Minneapolis idea, they said, had a central role written for an actor who has since died.

That talk will interest fans because the brothers have worked apart in recent years. Their last joint film was The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, which Netflix produced and released. After that, Joel Coen directed The Tragedy of Macbeth, starring McDormand and Denzel Washington, which A24 put out in theatres before it streamed on Apple TV+.

Ethan Coen went a different way. He made Drive-Away Dolls and Honey Don't!, both co-written with his wife and longtime collaborator Tricia Cooke.

The festival gave them a full welcome. The Institut Lumière listed the brothers among its 2026 guests and chose their comedy The Big Lebowski as the closing film, according to the Institut Lumière.

What makes this stand out is the setting. Minneapolis is familiar ground for the Coens, and McDormand's on-stage nudge turned a tribute into a suggestion. The crowd loved it. For now, there is no title, no cast and no schedule, only a stack of scripts and a hometown waiting.