Director Greta Gerwig, who set the box-office on fire with her film Barbie, will preside over the jury of the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.
Barbie grossed $1.4 billion at the global box office this year and just picked up nine Golden Globe nominations, Greta has attended Cannes alongside her partner Noah Baumbach before, notably in 2017 when his The Meyerowitz Stories premiered, but she’s never presented a film there, reports a media source.
There were early talks to bring Barbie to Cannes earlier this year but the timing didn’t work. The Warner Bros. movie was released on July 19 and became an instant classic and the highest-grossing worldwide movie of the year. On top of leading the Golden Globe nominations, Barbieis also expected to land numerous Oscar nominations.
“I love films – I love making them, I love going to them, I love talking about them. As a cinephile, Cannes has always been the pinnacle of what the universal language of movies can be,” Greta said in a statement. “Being in the place of vulnerability, in a dark theatre filled with strangers, watching a brand-new film is my favourite 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,” she added.
Greta will be the first American female director to take on the role of jury president at the Cannes Film Festival. At the age of 40, she’s also the youngest person to take on the role since Sophia Loren, who was 31 when she presided over Cannes’ jury in 1966. Other notable female jury presidents include Jane Campion in 2014 and Olivia de Havilland, Cannes’ first female jury president, in 1965.
Starting out as an actor, Greta Gerwig broke through as a solo director with Lady Bird in 2017. She became the fifth woman to be nominated for best director and the movie earned a total of five Oscar nominations. Her next film, Little Women, was also a critical hit and was nominated for five Oscars, winning best costume design. With Barbie, Greta became the most bankable female director in history.