Greta Gerwig will preside over the competition jury at the 77th Cannes Film Festival, running May 14-25, 2024.
Adding to what has been a record-breaking year for the Barbie filmmaker, Gerwig will become the first American female director in Cannes festival history to serve as jury president. At age 40, she is also the youngest jury president since Sophia Loren in 1966, the second American woman to assume the role after Olivia de Haviland in 1965, and the second female director after Jane Campion in 2014.
In a statement, the festival called Gerwig “a heroine of our modern times” and an “ambassador of independent American cinema” who has succeeded in “narrowing the gap between art and industry”.
Iris Knobloch, festival president and Thierry Frémaux, general delegate, said the appointment was “an obvious choice, since Greta Gerwig so audaciously embodies the renewal of world cinema, for which Cannes is each year both the forerunner and the sounding board”.
Knobloch and Frémaux added in a joint statement: “Beyond the seventh art, she is also the representative of an era that is breaking down barriers and mixing genres, and thereby elevating the values of intelligence and humanism.”
Gerwig was a force in the world of independent cinema before her blockbuster breakthrough with pop culture phenomenon Barbie, the year’s biggest global box office hit to date on upwards of $1.4bn in ticket sales.
The film is a frontrunner for the upcoming Academy Awards in March 2024 and has garnered nine Golden Globes nominations and a record 18 Critics Choice Awards nods.
As an actress Gerwig carved out a career with roles in films including Hannah Takes The Stairs which she co-wrote, Nights And Weekends, which she co-wrote and co-directed, The House Of The Devil, 20th Century Women, No Strings Attached, and Greenberg.
She is known for co-writing and starring in Frances Ha and Mistress America alongside partner and director Noah Baumbach, but catapaulted onto the global stage with her first solo feature, 2017’s Lady Bird, which earned five Oscar nominations including best director. She went on to direct 2019’s Oscar-nominated and multiple award-winning Little Women. Gerwig is also co-writer on Disney’s upcoming live action Snow White, directed by Marc Webb and set for a 2024 release.
“I love films – I love making them, I love going to them, I love talking about them,” said Gerwig. ”As a cinephile, Cannes has always been the pinnacle of what the universal language of movies can be. Being in the place of vulnerability, in a dark theatre filled with strangers, watching a brand-new film is my favorite place to be.
“I am stunned and thrilled and humbled to be serving as the president of the Cannes Film Festival jury. I cannot wait to see what journeys are in store for all of us!”
After a 2023 edition marred by the ongoing writers strike in Hollywood and an autumn festival season that was sparse on talent amid the SAG-AFTRA work stoppage, next year’s Cannes Film Festival looks to be a star-powered edition with Gerwig epitomising the festival’s signature blend of auteur cinema and red carpet glamour.
The festival will announce the complete selection for its 77th edition in mid-April.
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