Jim Jarmusch is a highly influential American film director, screenwriter and producer known for directing such works as Down by Law, Dead Man, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai and Only Lovers Left Alive.

Jarmusch studied film at NYU’s Graduate Film program in the late 1970’s, where he was classmates with Spike Lee.  Jarmusch developed his first feature film, Permanent Vacation, while a student at NYU.  The film premiered at the International Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg and won the Josef von Sternberg Award.

Jarmusch went on to make Stranger Than Paradise, which was released in 1984 to widespread critical acclaim. A deadpan comedy recounting the strange journey of three disillusioned youths from New York through Cleveland to Florida, the film broke many conventions of traditional Hollywood filmmaking. It was awarded the Camera d'Or at the1984 Cannes Film Festival, won Special Jury Recognition at Sundance, received the Golden Leopard at the Locarno International Film Festival, and picked up the 1985 National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Film.

From there, Jarmusch has gone on to direct 12 more feature films, winning several awards including the Cannes’ Grand Prize of the Jury for Broken Flowers, the 2005 Gotham Tribute Award, and the 2013 International Cinephile Society’s Best Director Award for Only Lovers Left Alive.