Arthur Cohn is a renowned independent film producer who has won six Academy Awards, the most by any independent producer in film history. Born in Basel, Switzerland, Cohn's father, Dr. Marcus Cohn, was a lawyer and leader of the Swiss Zionist movement who saved many Jews during World War II.
Cohn's mother, Rose Galewski, was a German-Jewish poet from Berlin. After high school, Cohn became a journalist and reporter for Swiss Radio, covering soccer and ice hockey games, as well as the Middle East, which he wrote three books about.
He shifted from journalist writing to script writing and eventually found his passion in supervising other scripts and producing movies. His first film production, The Sky Above, the Mud Below (1961),earned him his first Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
Cohn worked closely with his friend and mentor Vittorio De Sica, producing six of his last films, including The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (1970),which won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. He also collaborated with young and inexperienced directors, including Jean-Jacques Annaud and Richard Dembo, earning two more Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film.
Throughout his career, Cohn has been recognized for his passion for documentary filmmaking, earning nominations and wins for films such as The Yellow Star: The Persecution of the Jews in Europe - 1933-1945 (1981) and American Dream (1990).
Cohn has also produced feature films, including Two Bits (1995),White Lies (1997),Central Station (1998),Behind the Sun (2001),and The Children of Huang Shi (2008). He has received numerous awards and nominations for his work, including a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and the Humanitarian Award.
Cohn divides his time between Basel and Los Angeles and is known for his hands-on approach to producing, being strongly involved in the development of the script until the final touches of the editing process.
