Diablo Cody
"Juno" was runner-up for the Toronto International Film Festival People's Choice Award, won second prize at the Rome Film Festival, and earned four Academy Award nominations, including one for Best Picture. Cody herself won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for her debut script, which also picked up a Golden Globe nomination and an Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay. She also won screenplay honors from BAFTA, the Writers Guild of America, the Broadcast Film Critics Association, the National Board of Review, the Satellite Awards, and the 2008 Cinema for Peace Award for Most Valuable Work of Director, Producer & Screenwriter (which she shared with Jason Reitman, John Malkovich, Mason Novick, Russel Smith and Lianne Halfon).
Alex Cox
Cox began reading law as an undergraduate at Oxford University, but left to study radio, film and TV at Bristol University, graduating in 1977. Seeing difficulties in the British film scene at the time, he first went to Los Angeles to attend film school at UCLA in 1977. There he produced his first film, "Edge City/Sleep is for Sissies", a 40-minute surreal short about an artist struggling against society. After graduation, Cox formed Edge City Productions with two friends with the intention of producing low-budget feature films. He wrote a screenplay for "Repo Man", which he hoped to produce for a budget of $70,000, and began seeking funding.