PARIS, April 10 (Xinhua) -- This year's Cannes Festival, Europe's biggest film gathering, will open its night film with the screening of U.S. actor and director Jim Jarmusch's new movie "The Dead Don't Die", organizers said on Wednesday.

Jarmusch's zombie movie tells the story of "a sleepy small town of Centerville, (where) 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... "

It will make its world premiere at the festival in the French Riviera on May 14 on the screen of the Grand Theatre Lumiere. And it will compete for the Palme d'Or.

The movie 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", organizers said in a statement.

"His elegant, rock and roll cinema, often presenting an alternative America, has been honored 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," it added.

"The Dead Don't Die" will be released in France on the same day as its Cannes screening in the evening of May 14, in the United States on June 14 and then worldwide.

In the 72nd edition of the glamorous French Riviera festival the Jury, chaired by Mexican film director Alejandro Gonzlez Inarritu, will present the Palme d'Or at the closing ceremony on May 25.

He will present the list of competing movie for the festival's top prize on April 18.