Fargo is a 1996 black comedy crime film written, directed, produced and edited by Joel and Ethan Coen. It stars Frances McDormand, William H. Macy, Steve Buscemi, Harve Presnell, and Peter Stormare. McDormand plays pregnant police chief Marge Gunderson, who investigates after a car salesman, Jerry Lundegaard (Macy), hires two dimwitted criminals (Buscemi and Stormare) to kidnap his wife to extort a ransom from her wealthy father.
Filmed in the United States in early 1995, Fargo premiered at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival, where it competed for the Palme d'Or. Joel Coen won the festival's Prix De La Mise En Scène (Best Director Award). The film was a critical and commercial success, earning particular acclaim for the Coens' direction and script and the performances of McDormand, Macy and Buscemi. Fargo received seven Oscar nominations at the 69th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actor for Macy, winning two: Best Actress for McDormand and Best Original Screenplay for the Coens.
In 1998, the American Film Institute named Fargo one of the 100 greatest American films, the most recent film on that list; but it was omitted from its 2007 list. In 2006, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". An FX television series based on the film, Fargo, premiered in 2014.
