She is one of the most prominent filmmakers of the moment. Greta Gerwig, director of barbie and leading figure of American auteur cinema, will chair the jury of the 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, from May 14 to 25, 2024. The 40-year-old director, also an actress and screenwriter, will succeed the Swede Ruben Östlund, whose jury awarded this year’s Palme d’Or to Anatomy of a fall.
She is “the first American filmmaker to take on” this role, said the festival. And her presence will give a breath of youth to the Croisette: Cannes has not had such a young president since Sophia Loren and her 31 years in 1966. She is also the first woman since actress Cate Blanchett in 2018 to access this prestigious position, where men remain over-represented with notable exceptions, such as Jane Campion or Isabelle Huppert.
“Barbie” in pole position at the Golden Globes
“I deeply love films,” said the American director in a festival press release. “I like doing them, I like going to see them, I like talking about them for hours. As a film buff, Cannes has always been for me the pinnacle of what the universal language of films can represent. » barbie, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, is in pole position in the race for the Golden Globes, with nominations in nine categories. Released in the summer, the film grossed more than $1.44 billion worldwide.
Beyond this crazy comedy with a feminist message for which she co-wrote the screenplay, Greta Gerwig has become known as “the muse of independent American cinema”, underlines the festival. She realised Lady Bird (2017) or Doctor March’s Daughters (2020), and has also starred in more than twenty films.