Greta Gerwig To Judge Cannes Film Festival 2024
After her recent hit, the Barbie director Greta Gerwig is set to mark her footsteps at the Cannes Film Festival, in 2024. Greta Gerwig will preside over the jury for the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. The organizers announced the director as a jury on the official website of Cannes, where the organizers mentioned her commendable work in the Barbie movie which broke box office records.
In a press statement, organizers while announcing Gerwig’s appointment, stated how Gerwig managed to fill the gap between the art & movie industries through her remarkable contribution to the film fraternity in the form of Barbie. The film festival stated, “Gerwig manages to combine what was previously judged to be incompatible: delivering arthouse blockbusters, narrowing the gap between art and industry, exploring contemporary feminist issues with deft as well as depth, and declaring her demanding artistic ambition from within an economic model that she embraces to put to better use.”
Speaking on the announcement, the Cannes Film Festival president, Iris Knobloch also commented, saying Gerwig was an “obvious choice,” and the festival’s general delegate Thierry Frémaux said she was “the representative of an era that is breaking down barriers and mixing genres, and thus elevating the values of intelligence and humanism.”
Gerwig is the first female American film director to hold office over the jury, which bestows official festival awards such as the Palme d’Or and Caméra d’Or. However, at 40, she is far from the youngest jury president: Sophia Loren was 31 when she took over in 1966.
“This is an obvious preference,” said Festival President Iris Knobloch and General Delegate Thierry Frémaux, “because Greta Gerwig embodies the renewal of world the movie industry, for which Cannes is both the forerunner and the sounding board each year.”
Furthermore, they stated, “Beyond the 7th Art, she is also the representative of an era that is breaking down barriers and blending genres, and thereby elevating the values of intelligence and humanism.”
The 77th Cannes Film Festival will begin on May 14. The jury’s awards, including the Palme d’Or, will be announced on May 25 at the festival’s closing ceremony.
