14/12/2023 - The US filmmaker, still basking in the global success of Barbie, will preside over the competition jury at the 77th edition of the festival, which will unspool from 14-25 May

Actress-director Greta Gerwig (© Ben Rainer)

For the 13th time in its history, the competition jury at the Cannes Film Festival will be chaired by a woman, as it is US filmmaker, screenwriter and actress Greta Gerwig (whose filmography includes titles such as Lady Bird, Frances Ha and the recent worldwide box-office smash Barbie) who will take on the role at the 77th edition (14-25 May 2024) of the most important film gathering in the world. She thus steps into the shoes of Sweden’s Ruben Östlund, who presided over the jury at the 2023 edition of the festival, which is headed up by Iris Knobloch (president) and Thierry Frémaux (General Delegate).

The first US female director to take on the role of jury president at the Cannes Film Festival, Gerwig, at the age of 40, adds another record to her considerable list of achievements: that of becoming the youngest person to take on the task since Sofia Loren, aged only 31 in 1966, and the second female director since Jane Campion in 2014. She is also the second US woman after Olivia de Havilland served as the first female jury president in 1965. This will be the 21st time in its history that the competition jury at the Cannes Film Festival will be chaired by an American personality. Among Gerwig’s fellow countrypeople having recently been entrusted with the prestigious role are Quentin Tarantino (2004), Sean Penn (2008), Tim Burton (2010), Robert de Niro (2011), Steven Spielberg (2013), brothers Joel and Ethan Coen (2015), and Spike Lee (2021).

“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,” stated Gerwig. “Being in a 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!”

“This is an obvious choice, since Greta Gerwig so audaciously embodies the renewal of world cinema, for which Cannes is both the forerunner and the sounding board each year,” said Iris Knobloch and Thierry Frémaux. “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.”

(Translated from French)