Europe 1 with AFP 06:18, December 14, 2023, modified at 06:19, December 14, 2023

Greta Gerwig, director of "Barbie" and a leading figure in American auteur cinema, was appointed on Thursday as president of the 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival. The 40-year-old director, who is also an actress and screenwriter, will take over from May 14 to 25 from Sweden's Ruben Östlund, whose jury awarded the Palme d'Or this year to "Anatomy of a Fall."

The Cannes Film Festival is rolling out a candy-pink carpet for one of the most prominent filmmakers of the moment, Greta Gerwig, director of "Barbie" and figurehead of American auteur cinema, appointed president of its 77th edition. The 40-year-old director, who is also an actress and screenwriter, will take over from May 14 to 25 from Sweden's Ruben Östlund, whose jury awarded the Palme d'Or this year to "Anatomy of a Fall." She is "the first American filmmaker to take on" the role, the festival said. And her presence will give a breath of youth to the Croisette: Cannes hasn't had such a young president since Sophia Loren and her 31st birthday... in 1966.

She is also the first female director since actress Cate Blanchett in 2018 to reach this prestigious position, where men remain over-represented with notable exceptions, such as Jane Campion or Isabelle Huppert. "I have a deep love for films," the American director said in a statement from the festival. "I like to do them, I like to go see them, I like to talk about them for hours. As a cinephile, Cannes has always been for me the pinnacle of what the universal language of films can represent."

Before the Oscars

By announcing in December that it was hiring a high-profile female director, the world's largest film festival pulled the rug out from under the feet of one of its younger siblings, the Berlinale, which takes place in February. The German festival has just announced on Monday its 40-year-old jury president, Mexican-Kenyan actress Lupita Nyong'o, the first black person to hold this position. The Cannes buzz started very early, even before the start of the Oscar race, postponed to March 10 after six months of historic strike that paralyzed Hollywood. An awards season for which Greta Gerwig is among the favorites: "Barbie," starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, is in pole position in the race for the Golden Globes, with nominations in nine categories.

In any case, the director has already won over the public: with this film, she entered Hollywood history this year as the most bankable director, the first to cross the billion euro mark in box office revenues. Released in the summer, the film has grossed more than $1.44 billion worldwide.

"Intelligence and humanism"

Beyond this delirious comedy with a feminist message for which she co-wrote the screenplay, Greta Gerwig has made a name for herself as "the muse of independent American cinema", the festival reminds us. She directed "Lady Bird" (2017), a comedy about adolescence that put her in the running for an Oscar with Saoirse Ronan. She reunites with the actress, accompanied by Emma Watson, Florence Pugh and Laura Dern for her modernized and feminist adaptation of a classic of American literature, "Dr. March's Daughters" (2020).

The actress, who is preparing an adaptation of "The Chronicles of Narnia" for Netflix, has also starred in more than two dozen films, including the black-and-white comedy "Frances Ha," co-written with her partner, director Noah Baumbach, and the latter's film "White Noise," alongside Adam Driver. "This choice is an obvious one, as Greta Gerwig boldly embodies the revival of world cinema," said the festival's president Iris Knobloch and its general delegate Thierry Frémaux. "Beyond the 7th art, she also appears as the representative of an era that abolishes borders and mixes genres to make intelligence and humanism triumph."

By naming Greta Gerwig, the festival also highlights the persistence of her ties with the powerful American industry. Last year's appointment of Iris Knobloch, who came from Warner, as president reinforced this honeymoon between Hollywood and the Croisette. This year, Cannes saw the return of legends such as Harrison Ford ("Indiana Jones") and Martin Scorsese ("Killers of the Flower Moon").

In the coming months, the festival will still unveil the composition of the rest of the jury as well as the list of films in the official selection.