---
name: "Jim Jarmusch"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/jim-jarmusch"
fi1m_id: "jim-jarmusch"
imdb_id: "nm0000464"
tmdb_id: 4429
wikidata_id: "Q191755"
roles: ["Director","Writer"]
born: "22 January 1953"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 8
average_fi1m_score: 82
average_as: "director"
average_over: 6
updated: "2026-09-23T23:41:20.078876+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Jim Jarmusch

## Identity

Jim Jarmusch

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/jim-jarmusch
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** jim-jarmusch
- **IMDb ID:** nm0000464
- **TMDB ID:** 4429
- **Wikidata ID:** Q191755
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Jarmusch, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q191755, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000464/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/4429

Director and writer. Born 22 January 1953 in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, USA.

## Details

- **Work:** Director, Writer
- **Born:** 22 January 1953, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, USA
- **Active:** 1984–2016
- **Also known as:** 짐 자머시, 짐 자무쉬, James Robert Jarmusch, James Jarmusch, 짐 자무시
- **Titles on Fi1m:** 8: 1 acting, 6 directing, 1 other
- **Frequently works with:** [John Lurie](https://film.one/person/john-lurie.md)
- **Cannes Film Festival:** 1 Cannes prize (1 won)
- **Average Fi1m score:** 82, as director, over 6 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 1980s 82 (2), 1990s 81 (3), 2000s 50 (1), 2010s 82 (2)
- **Fi1m against the critics:** 82 to 75 across 6 titles
- **Score spread:** 6 at 80+, 0 at 60–79, 0 under 60
- **Genres:** Drama 6, Comedy 3, Crime 2, Fantasy 2, Romance 2, Western 1
- **Screen time:** 11 hours of reviewed films
- **Box office:** $25m across 6 films with figures
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Jarmusch, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q191755, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000464/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/4429

## Streaming the US now

- **HBO Max:** [*Down by Law*](https://film.one/film/down-by-law.md) (83), [*Stranger Than Paradise*](https://film.one/film/stranger-than-paradise.md) (82), [*Bored to Death*](https://film.one/tv/bored-to-death.md) (50)
- **The Criterion Channel:** [*Dead Man*](https://film.one/film/dead-man.md) (81), [*Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai*](https://film.one/film/ghost-dog-the-way-of-the-samurai.md) (80)
- **Amazon Prime Video:** [*Only Lovers Left Alive*](https://film.one/film/only-lovers-left-alive.md) (81)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Jim Jarmusch

> Jim Jarmusch gives outsiders time to be funny and worth caring about. We rate his patient, deadpan cinema, especially the warmth of *Dead Man*, though some pauses give us too little to notice.

An accountant enters a hostile frontier, and Jim Jarmusch makes room for how badly he fits. In *Dead Man* (1995), William Blake has little protection against the violence and exploitation around him, but the people he meets keep the film from becoming solemn. Jarmusch takes their absurdity seriously enough to make it funny. We recommend this disquieting Western with a reservation about its pace. His interest in outsiders pays off when he gives them company, and Johnny Depp and Gary Farmer supply the warmth that makes the journey worth following.

The breakthrough, *Stranger Than Paradise* (1984), established him in independent cinema. In *Mystery Train* (1989) and *Night on Earth* (1991), he used separate stories rather than a single plot driving everyone forwards. *Dead Man* took that taste for episodes into a black-and-white Western with a Neil Young score. It also marked a change of tone: the humour helps us stay with the brutality, but Jarmusch does not let it make the violence seem inconsequential.

Editor Jay Rabinowitz leaves space between *Dead Man*'s encounters, giving the deadpan jokes time to register. We were moved by the companionship because Farmer's Nobody seems to have a life beyond Blake, rather than existing only to explain the frontier to him. Jarmusch allows that relationship enough warmth to make the thoughts about death bearable. The pauses are less reliable: some hold our attention, while others repeat how strange and brutal this place is. Those stretches could be shorter without losing the quietness, and they expose a recurring risk in a director who so often puts stillness before plot.

*Broken Flowers* (2005), with Bill Murray, brought broader attention without requiring Jarmusch to abandon his understated approach to actors. *Paterson* (2016), about a bus driver who writes poetry, gives his attention to small details an everyday setting. We want the pauses to reveal something about a person, as Farmer's presence does in *Dead Man*. Start there, provided an unhurried Western sounds like a reasonable use of the evening.

## Biography

Jim Jarmusch is an American film director and screenwriter. He was born on 22 January 1953 in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio.

Jarmusch studied at Columbia University and New York University. He has worked in independent cinema since the 1980s and is known for films including *Stranger Than Paradise* (1984), *Down by Law* (1986), *Dead Man* (1995), *Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai* (1999), *Broken Flowers* (2005), *Only Lovers Left Alive* (2013) and *Paterson* (2016).

*Sources: imdb.com, en.wikipedia.org.*

## On Fi1m (8)

### Performed in (1)

- *Sling Blade* (1996), Fi1m 83, as Frostee Cream Boy — [page](https://film.one/film/sling-blade.md)

### Directed (6) — the average rests on these

- *Paterson* (2016), Fi1m 84, Music, Writer, Director, Original Music Composer — [page](https://film.one/film/paterson.md)
- *Only Lovers Left Alive* (2013), Fi1m 81, Writer, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/only-lovers-left-alive.md)
- *Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai* (1999), Fi1m 80, Producer, Director, Writer — [page](https://film.one/film/ghost-dog-the-way-of-the-samurai.md)
- *Dead Man* (1995), Fi1m 81, Director, Writer — [page](https://film.one/film/dead-man.md)
- *Down by Law* (1986), Fi1m 83, Writer, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/down-by-law.md)
- *Stranger Than Paradise* (1984), Fi1m 82, Director, Editor, Screenplay — [page](https://film.one/film/stranger-than-paradise.md)

### Also credited (1) — thanks, archive footage, uncredited

- *Bored to Death* (2009), Fi1m 50, as Self — [page](https://film.one/tv/bored-to-death.md)

## Complete filmography (67)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *Nova '78* (2026), Sound
- *Father Mother Sister Brother* (2025), Director, Writer, Executive Producer, Original Music Composer
- *Fathom* (2025), Music
- *A Short Film by Jim Jarmusch, Starring Beatrice Domond* (2025), Director, Cinematography
- *Adios* (2025), Actor
- *Return to Reason: Four Films by Man Ray* (2024), Original Music Composer
- *Pre-Prom* (2023), Music
- *SQÜRL, Man Ray's Backing Band* (2023), as Member of SQÜRL · Executive Producer
- *The Dead Don't Die* (2019), Director, Writer
- *What We Do in the Shadows* (2019), series, as Jim Jarmusch
- *Living the Light: Robby Müller* (2018), Original Music Composer
- *Porto* (2017), Executive Producer
- *Uncle Howard* (2017), Executive Producer
- *Paterson* (2016), Director, Original Music Composer, Writer — Fi1m 84, [page](https://film.one/film/paterson.md)
- *Gimme Danger* (2016), Writer, Director
- *Only Lovers Left Alive* (2013), Writer, Director, Musician — Fi1m 81, [page](https://film.one/film/only-lovers-left-alive.md)
- *The Limits of Control* (2009), Director, Writer
- *Explicit Ills* (2008), Executive Producer
- *Broken Flowers* (2005), Director, Writer
- *Coffee and Cigarettes* (2004), Editor, Director, Screenplay
- *Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet* (2002), Writer, Director
- *Int. Trailer. Night* (2002), Director
- *Ghost Dog: The Odyssey: The Journey Into the Life of a Samurai* (2001), Actor
- *Some Days in January, 1984* (2001), Actor
- *Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai* (1999), Director, Producer, Writer — Fi1m 80, [page](https://film.one/film/ghost-dog-the-way-of-the-samurai.md)
- *SpongeBob SquarePants* (1999), series, as Fisherman
- *V.I.P.* (1998), series, as Jim Jarmusch
- *Year of the Horse* (1997), Director, Director of Photography
- *Coffee and Cigarettes III* (1997), Writer, Director
- *R.I.P. Rest in Pieces: A Portrait of Joe Coleman* (1997), Actor
- *Sling Blade* (1996), as Frostee Cream Boy — Fi1m 83, [page](https://film.one/film/sling-blade.md)
- *Dead Man* (1995), Director, Writer — Fi1m 81, [page](https://film.one/film/dead-man.md)
- *Blue in the Face* (1995), as Bob
- *Iron Horsemen* (1995), as Silver Rider
- *When Pigs Fly* (1993), Executive Producer
- *Strummer* (1993), Actor
- *In the Soup* (1992), as Monty
- *BAD I+II* (1992), Director
- *Night on Earth* (1991), Screenplay, Director, Producer
- *The Golden Boat* (1991), as Stranger
- *Red Hot + Blue: A Tribute to Cole Porter* (1990), Director
- *The Simpsons* (1989), series, as Jim Jarmusch (voice) — Fi1m 88, [page](https://film.one/tv/the-simpsons.md)
- *Mystery Train* (1989), Director, Writer
- *Leningrad Cowboys Go America* (1989), as Car Dealer | New York
- *Coffee and Cigarettes II* (1989), Writer, Director
- *Talking Heads: Storytelling Giant* (1988), Director
- *Me* (1988), Thanks
- *Candy Mountain* (1988), as (uncredited)
- *Helsinki Napoli All Night Long* (1987), as Barkeeper #2
- *Straight to Hell* (1987), as Amos Dade
- *Coffee and Cigarettes* (1987), Director, Writer
- *Down by Law* (1986), Director, Writer — Fi1m 83, [page](https://film.one/film/down-by-law.md)
- *Sleepwalk* (1986), Camera Operator
- *The Ballad of Sexual Dependency* (1985), Actor
- *Stranger Than Paradise* (1984), Editor, Director, Screenplay — Fi1m 82, [page](https://film.one/film/stranger-than-paradise.md)
- *Kino '84: The Making of Jim Jarmusch* (1984), as Interviewee
- *Burroughs: The Movie* (1984), Sound Recordist
- *American Autobahn* (1984), as Movie Producer
- *Stranger Than Paradise* (1983), Director
- *Vortex* (1982), as Voice Over
- *The State of Things* (1982), Music
- *You Are Not I* (1981), Writer, Producer, Director of Photography
- *Permanent Vacation* (1981), Director, Producer, Editor, Screenplay, Story, Music
- *Only You* (1981), Actor
- *Underground U.S.A.* (1980), Sound Recordist
- *Sheep & Wolf*, Director, Writer
- *Garden of Ashes*, Producer

## Gallery

- ![Jim Jarmusch](https://film.one/media/person/86483/gallery-b90954f6ac8b.jpg) Jim Jarmusch — Harald Krichel, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/34/Jim_Jarmusch-9078.jpg/1280px-Jim_Jarmusch-9078.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Jim Jarmusch](https://film.one/media/person/86483/gallery-9639c69c1670.jpg) Jim Jarmusch — Image via TMDB
- ![Jim Jarmusch](https://film.one/media/person/86483/gallery-3023a4f62f09.jpg) Jim Jarmusch — Image via TMDB
- ![Jim Jarmusch](https://film.one/media/person/86483/gallery-d813e230ab2b.jpg) Jim Jarmusch — Image via TMDB

## Awards

### Cannes Film Festival — 1 won

- 2005: Cannes Film Festival Grand Prix (won), for *Broken Flowers*

### Other awards — 7 won, 1 nominated

- Officer of Arts and Letters 2016: Officer of Arts and Letters (won)
- Carrosse d'or 2008: Carrosse d'or (won)
- European Film Award for Best Non-European Film 2005: European Film Award for Best Non-European Film (nominated), for *Broken Flowers*
- European Film Award for Best Non-European Film 1996: European Film Award for Best Non-European Film (won), for *Dead Man*
- Short Film Palme d'Or 1993: Short Film Palme d'Or (won), for *Coffee and Cigarettes: Somewhere in California*
- Film Independent Spirit Awards 1987: Film Independent Spirit Awards (won), for *Down by Law*
- Caméra d'Or 1984: Caméra d'Or (won), for *Stranger Than Paradise*
- Golden Leopard 1984: Golden Leopard (won), for *Stranger Than Paradise*

*From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.*

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/jim-jarmusch