Jim Jarmusch names his favourite movie of all time

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Jim Jarmusch reveals why he doesn’t want to return to Cannes Film Festival

Fri 19 December 2025 14:28, UK

Director Jim Jarmusch has revealed that he doesn’t plan to return to the Cannes Film Festival after it rejected showing his latest movie, Father Mother Sister Brother, in competition.

In September, the film, which stars Tom Waits, Cate Blanchett and Adam Driver, won the coveted Golden Lion award for ‘Best Film’ at the Venice Film Festival. However, he had initially hoped to take it to Cannes instead.

While Cannes Film Festival did agree to premiere the movie at the prestigious French event, it would have been out of competition. Therefore, Jarmusch opted for Venice instead.

Now, in a new interview with IndieWire, the director explained, “I submitted it to Cannes, and we were told, ‘It’s not selected for competition. We might put it in a different section.’ To which I responded, ‘I haven’t made a film in five years. I’ve been in Cannes many times. That’s not appropriate to me.”

He continued, “Competition’s very important to me in Cannes, not for the competition, but for the profile of the release of my film, so I can start getting the investors paid back, and I can make another film. It’s not about the awards.”

Jarmusch then explained why it proved to be “a good thing” as he used the time he’d have been in Cannes to work on the script for his next movie, adding, “Instead of going to Cannes, I have a new script which is in the works.”

The filmmaker was also full of praise for Venice, which he prefers to Cannes, sharing, “I loved being in Venice with the film. I hadn’t been there in a long time, and I really was happy to be there. Venice is so mysterious and strange and great, and the festival’s really great… Now I kind of never want to go to Cannes.”

Jarmusch also had some harsh words to say about the Cannes clientele, saying of the Venice audience, “They were giving me real, sincere love. It wasn’t 2,000 French hairdressers from L’Oréal in Cannes, you know what I mean? It was real. And that was really moving. I never felt that before.”

Father Mother Brother Sister is set for a US cinematic release on December 24th, 2025, before being made available in Europe next year.