Greta Gerwig, super-bank president of the 2024 Cannes Film Festival jury

For the president of the Cannes festival, Iris Knobloch, and its chief delegate, Thierry Fremaux, it is “obvious”. By appointing Greta Gerwig as the head of the jury from May 14 to 25, 2024, they distinguish not only: “A bold embodiment of the renewal of world cinema,” but also the first American filmmaker to attempt this sanctification, among 12 female presidents in 77 releases. This selection also pays tribute to the author’s historical performance barbie, the first woman to cross the billion dollar mark at the box office. The success of her film, a cross between a candy-pink fantasy, a feminist fairy tale, and an auteur blockbuster (co-written with her husband, independent director Noah Baumbach), elevates the Californian director to icon status. “Greta Gerwig is the perfect representative of the era. which eliminates borders and mixes genres,” said the organizers of Cannes.

Thanks to him, the holy grail of enjoying critical acclaim and public success, imprinting a personal vision on a popular work while ensuring “bankability” now seems to be the case for his colleagues in independent cinema. “Greta Gerwig has shown she can make an art house movie while still making money for the studios. In a country that sees cinema above all as an industry, she has advanced the work of all female directors,” enthuses Danish reporter Tina Jonk Christensen, a member of the Golden Globes. A sentimental drama with the cosmopolitan Celine Song past lives A subtle and masterful first film, presented in multiple nominations, and France’s Justine Trier, who won the 2023 Palme d’Or and the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. anatomy of a fall The American embodies a new generation.

Celluloid ceiling

Recognized and honored by her peers, an example in an industry that has learned since the upheavals of MeToo and Black Lives Matter to make equality and diversity its burning priority, this next generation is finally in full view. For a long time, we’ve listed unfailing pioneers in encouraging women’s titles, including Jane Campion, the first female Palme d’Or. piano lesson in 1993; Sofia Coppola, the first American woman to be nominated for a directing Oscar lost in translation in 2004; or Kathryn Bigelow, the first Oscar-winning film director, in 2010. Minesweepers.

The 2010s were marked by Patty Jenkins’ success as the first female action director to cross the $100 million mark at the box office. Wonder woman (in 2017), but also the brilliant rise of Greta Gerwig, a former actress discovered by groundbreaking and semi-ambitious independent cinema (Frances Ha, 2012) or Ava DuVernay, the first African-American in charge of a budget of more than $100 million (time shortcut, 2018). San Diego State University film professor Martha Lauzen’s theory of the “celluloid ceiling” is very remarkable.

For twenty-six years, his annual report examined equality in Hollywood; In 2023, only 16% of the top 250 films and 14% of the top 100 grossing films were directed by women. “A recent study from the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism (USC) shows that directors still outnumber women by a ratio of 10-1, but the number is increasing,” adds Tina Yonk Christensen. If the numbers are persistent, progress is noticeable. The policy of equality necessary for the visibility of female filmmakers, which is implemented in festivals and prestigious award selection committees, is finally paying off.

Winning ticket

In 2024, 47% of films presented at Sundance were directed by women. In 2021 between Regina King (One night in Miami), Emerald Fennel (A promising young woman) and Chloe Zhao (nomad country Golden Lion 2020 in Venice), the Golden Globes committee nominated three women out of five directors, still an unprecedented record for equality and diversity. With her win, Chloë Zhao became the first Chinese woman and the second woman to win the trophy, thirty-seven years after Barbra Streisand. His subsequent Oscar win was Hollywood’s ultimate recognition. Because before the number of entries, the award represents the most beautiful calling card in a field where “one success entitles you to a maximum of three failures,” recalls Didier Allouche, a twenty-eight-year correspondent for Canal+ in Los Angeles and director; Hollywood Weekly. “This means that for any director, he will be able to connect with producers … who will take their call,” he continues.

It’s also the magic ticket to a more ambitious project, as was the case with Chloe Zhao, who followed the Marvel superhero film. the eternal ones or Greta Gerwig, who made the leap The Doctor’s Four Daughters Mart (40 million budget) to: barbie (100 million). “Whether you’re a man or a woman, you have to be established to get a big budget,” assures Didier Allouch. In the past, everyone is making their own hands and possibly money on short films, small independent films, horror, series… Studios want to ensure that the director, the head of the site, hired to lead a team, will “keep his tray”. And all these directors were able to prove it.”

Results requirement

In an industry that historically favors men in supervisory positions, the sexist adage that a demanding director is “cool” and a female director is “difficult.” Didier Allouch protests “against this bully mentality”. “I’ve heard many times that Kathryn Bigelow is not good on set. Because you think Francis Ford Coppola brings croissants in the morning, maybe? A twelve-hour day, a team of 200 people. we need to be respectful, but can we always be kind when working on a tight schedule? The biggest and the biggest are demanding, they are obliged to achieve results.

“The directors all have strong personalities,” emphasizes Tina Yonk Christensen. And endurance, because this profession is not accessible to everyone. The real question is, would you trust them, would you invest your money in their film? I would say yes to everyone.” The ability of female filmmakers to work under high pressure in the studio or build a work on the margins is unique and uncompromising, like Kelly Reichardt (nocturnal movements 2013) is therefore no longer questioned.

A generation of strong women

Even better, these independent film directors-screenwriters are moving in Hollywood, developing one film after another with their auteur attitude inherited from our French New Wave. Meeting with blockbusters that were initially entrusted to master technicians, these achievers confirm this role. They thus impose their unique vision, the female gaze, like Greta Gerwig, who ticks all the boxes of current issues… “The dynamics of equality and inclusion are in motion,” exults Didier Allouch. But we need to remain vigilant about representation, encourage girls to go to film school where the number of women is still very low, and encourage producers to hire women in front of and behind the camera.”

All eyes are on the new generation powerful women Hollywood. studio directors (such as Donna Langley, president of Universal), actress-producers such as Charlize Theron (initiator monster by Patty Jenkins) or even Margot Robbie, now powerful in America, who created barbie In collaboration with Greta Gerwig. Didier Allouch prophesies. “At this rate, within ten years, the question of the director’s gender will no longer arise.”