Jim Carrey has named Sidney Lumet's 1976 satire *Network* as his favourite film, praising its writing as prescient about how media and audiences would evolve decades later. Carrey's admiration for the film, revealed in a past exchange with the late Norm MacDonald, sheds light on his own fascination with performance, identity and the blurred line between reality and reality, themes he has returned to throughout his career, including his infamous method performance as Andy Kaufman.

*Network* follows a television network that exploits a mentally unstable former news anchor's on-air breakdowns for ratings, only to lose control of the story it created. Carrey singled out screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky as "a genius" who was "writing about things that were going to happen 50 years later", pointing specifically to a kitchen scene between William Holden and Faye Dunaway about mortality. He is not alone in his admiration, as George Clooney has also cited the film among his favourites, reflecting its lasting reputation among actors for its dark, uncompromising commentary on media and outrage culture.