Carter Burwell has composed the music for a number of feature films, including BLOOD SIMPLE, RAISING ARIZONA, MILLER'S CROSSING, BARTON FINK, ROB ROY, FARGO, THE SPANISH PRISONER, GODS AND MONSTERS, VELVET GOLDMINE, BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, BEFORE NIGHT FALLS, ADAPTATION, IN BRUGES, TWILIGHT, TRUE GRIT, ANOMALISA, CAROL, and THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI.

His theater work includes the chamber opera THE CELESTIAL ALPHABET EVENT and the Mabou Mines productions MOTHER and LUCIA'S CHAPTERS OF COMING FORTH BY DAY. In 2005 he developed a concert work for text and music titled THEATER OF THE NEW EAR, presented in New York, London and Los Angeles. The text, by Joel and Ethan Coen and Charlie Kaufman, was performed by a dozen actors including Meryl Streep, Steve Buscemi, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Hope Davis, Peter Dinklage, and Jennifer Jason Leigh. The music was performed by the Parabola Ensemble, conducted by Mr. Burwell.

His writing includes the essay "Music at Six: Scoring the News Then and Now," published in the inaugural issue of Esopus magazine in 2003 and reprinted in Harper's Magazine, and the essay “No Country For Old Music” in the 2013 Oxford Handbook of New Audiovisual Aesthetics.

He has performed around the world with his own ensembles as well as others, such as The Harmonic Choir.