The 72nd Festival de Cannes will open with the Competition screening of Jim Jarmusch’s new film, The Dead Don’t Die. On May 14, on the screen of the Grand Théâtre Lumière, the film by the American director and screenwriter will be this year’s first Palme d’Or competition screening.

The independent filmmaker’s newest foray into genre film (after the western with Dead Man, Samurai/crime film with Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, and his vampire film, Only Lovers Left Alive) promises to be “the greatest zombies cast ever disassembled”: Bill Murray, Adam Driver, Tilda Swinton, Chloë Sevigny, Steve Buscemi, Danny Glover, Caleb Landry Jones, Rosie Perez, Iggy Pop, Selena Gomez, RZA, Sara Driver, Austin Butler, Luka Sabbat, Eszter Balint, Carol Kane and Tom Waits.

The Dead Don’t Die also reunites Jarmusch with many of his frequent collaborators including Director of Photography Frederick Elmes (Night on Earth, Paterson, Broken Flowers) and Editor Affonso Gonçalves (Only Lovers Left Alive, Paterson). The Dead Don’t Die is Jim Jarmusch’s thirteenth feature film and stands as not just a humorous and sometimes scary subversion of the genre (with a nod to George Romero’s seminal film, Night of the Living Dead) but also a tribute to cinema itself,

In the sleepy small town of Centerville, something is not quite right. The moon hangs large and low in the sky, the hours of daylight are becoming unpredictable and animals are beginning to exhibit unusual behaviors. No one quite knows why. News reports are scary and scientists are concerned. But no one foresees the strangest and most dangerous repercussion that will soon start plaguing Centerville: THE DEAD DON’T DIE — they rise from their graves and savagely attack and feast on the living — and the citizens of the town must battle for their survival.

Since Stranger Than Paradise, Caméra d’or winner at the Festival de Cannes in 1984, which was a landmark in the history of new independent American cinema, Jim Jarmusch has been sharing with us his artful, soulful universes, inspired soundtracks, offbeat humour, and the meanderings of his anti-heroes in an always slightly strange world. At Cannes, his elegant, rock and roll cinema, often presenting an alternative America, has been honoured with four awards, including the Short Film Palme d’or in 1993 for Coffee and Cigarettes: Somewhere in California and the Grand Prix in 2005 for Broken Flowers.

In 2016, Jim Jarmusch had two films in the Official Selection: Paterson with Golshifteh Farahani and Adam Driver, in Competition, and Gimme Danger, the music documentary on Iggy and the Stooges as part of the Midnight Screenings.

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