Arthur Cohn

Arthur Cohn (4 February 1927 – 12 December 2025) was a Swiss film producer and a multiple Academy Award winner.

Life and career Cohn was born to a Jewish family, the son of Marcus Cohn, a lawyer who saved the lives of many Jews from within Switzerland during World War II and leader of the Swiss Zionist movement. Cohn's mother, Rose Cohn-Galewski, was a Jewish-German poet from Berlin. Cohn's grandfather, Arthur Cohn, was the first chief rabbi of Basel. He shifted from journalist writing to script writing, but soon found his passion in film production.

Six of his films won the Academy Award, three in the category of Best Foreign Language Film and three in the category of Best Documentary Feature. Cohn was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1992, the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture in 1995, the Humanitarian Award by the National Board of Review in 2001, the Guardian of Zion Award in 2004, as well as the UNESCO Award in 2005. He was bestowed with multiple honorary degrees including from Boston University (1998), Yeshiva University (2001), the University of Basel (2006), and Bar-Ilan University (2021). Cohn received Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Chicago International Film Festival (1992), the Jerusalem Film Festival (1995), the Shanghai International Film Festival (1999), the Haifa International Film Festival (2016) as well as from the Cinema for Peace Foundation (2019).

Cohn divided his time between Basel and Los Angeles and was regarded as a hands-on producer who was strongly involved with the development of the script until the final touches of the editing process. For decades he was assisted by Lillian Birnbaum (Paris) and Pierre Rothschild (Zurich). Cohn's films have been shown at many retrospectives around the world.

His best-known fictional film is The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (1970, directed by Vittorio De Sica). He also produced films by Kevin Macdonald (One Day in September) and Walter Salles (Central Station, Behind the Sun).

Death Arthur Cohn died in Jerusalem on 12 December 2025, at the age of 98.

Filmography Year Film Notes 1961 Sky Above and Mud Beneath (Le Ciel et la Boue) Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film 1963 Mit Karl May im Orient TV series 1964 Paris Secret Documentary feature film 1967 Woman Times Seven (Sette volte donna) 1968 Clown Short film A Place for Lovers (Amanti) 1970 Sunflower (I Girasoli) The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (Il Giardino dei Finzi-Contini) Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film 1972 We'll Call Him Andrew (Lo chiameremo Andrea) 1973 A Brief Vacation (Una breve vacanza) David di Donatello Award Winner 1976 Black and White in Color (La Victoire en chantant) Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film 1979 Adoption (L'adoption) 1981 The Yellow Star – The Persecution of the Jews in Europe 1933-45 (Der Gelbe Stern) Academy Award Nominee for Best Documentary Feature Film1984 Love on the Ground (L'Amour par Terre) Dangerous Moves (La Diagonale du Fou) Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film 1990 American Dream Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film 1991 November Days Documentary film 1995 Two Bits 1997 White Lies 1998 Central Station (Central do Brasil) Academy Award Nominee for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Actress in a Leading Role and Golden Globe Award for Best Non-English Language Film 1999 Children of the Night Documentary short film One Day in September Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film 2001 Behind the Sun (Abril Despedaçado) Golden Globe Nominee for Best Non-English Language Film 2004 The Chorus (Les Choristes) Academy Award Nominee for Best Foreign Language Film and for Best Original Song 2008 The Yellow Handkerchief The Children of Huang Shi 2009 Feathered Fan and Silken Ribbon Documentary film 2012 Russian Disco 2018 The Etruscan Smile