'Barbie' director Greta Gerwig to head Cannes Film Festival jury

US director Greta Gerwig, who packed theatres this summer with the pink-themed movie phenomenon "Barbie", was named as jury president for the 2024 Cannes Film Festival on Thursday.

"This is an obvious choice, since Greta Gerwig so audaciously embodies the renewal of world cinema, for which Cannes is each year both the forerunner and the sounding board," said festival president Iris Knobloch and festival director Thierry Fremaux in a joint statement.

Gerwig, 40, will be the first female US director to serve as jury president, taking the baton from the head of the 2023 jury, Triangle of Sadness director and two-time Palme d'Or winner Ruben Ostlund of Sweden.

She is also the youngest person to take on the task in nearly six decades, since Sophia Loren, aged 31, in 1966.

Gerwig said in a statement that she was "stunned and thrilled and humbled" to be selected.

She takes over after the film industry was shaken up by twin summer Hollywood strikes that scrambled film and TV schedules, potentially dimming some of the festival's glamour, and also raised questions about the use of artificial intelligence and how streaming services pay writers and actors for their work.

Barbie, starring Margot Robbie, set records as the biggest opening of 2023 and the highest-grossing of any movie directed by a woman in history, eclipsing the April opening of The Super Mario Bros. Movie. And in a sign of its prospects this awards season, Barbie topped the list of nominees for Hollywood's Golden Globe awards with nine nods this week.

The 77th Cannes Film Festival takes place from May 14-25, with the official selection to be unveiled in mid-April.