The Cannes Film Festival announced on Thursday, December 14, the choice of one of the most prominent filmmakers of the moment, Greta Gerwig, director of "Barbie" and a leading figure in American auteur cinema, to preside over the jury 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 fresh air to the Croisette: Cannes has not 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 overrepresented with notable exceptions, such as Jane Campion or Isabelle Huppert.
"A no-brainer"
"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."
"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 has grossed more than $1.44 billion worldwide.
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", according to the festival. She directed "Lady Bird" (2017) and "Dr. March's Daughters" (2020), is working on an adaptation of "The Chronicles of Narnia" for Netflix and has also starred in more than two dozen films.
"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 Seventh Art, it also appears as the representative of an era that abolishes borders and mixes genres to make intelligence and humanism triumph."
With AFP
This week's recapFrance 24 invites you to look back on the news that marked the week
Subscribe now
Take international news with you wherever you go! Download the France 24 app