Greta Gerwig, who directed and co-wrote the billion-dollar blockbuster starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, has been tapped to become guest artistic director of the Los Angeles-based festival. In this role, Gerwig will select a number of films to add to the festival lineup and will be on hand to present one or more of those films as her schedule allows. Filmmakers like Pedro Almodóvar, Bernardo Bertolucci, Ava DuVernay, David Lynch and Agnès Varda have played this role in previous festivals.
The move brings Gerwig back into the AFI Fest fold after screening her previous films Lady Bird and Little Women there in years past. Gerwig also served on the short film jury in 2010. “Greta Gerwig is dedicated to film and AFI is dedicated to her,” said AFI President and CEO Bob Gazzale, who said he was “honored to ‘welcome home’.
She comes to the concert after releasing Barbie in July with Warner Bros. The film became the most successful release of the year with a worldwide box office gross to date of over $1.4 billion. In 2017, she made her directorial debut with Lady Bird, earning Academy Award nominations for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. She followed this up with an adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, which was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture. As an actress, she was most recently seen in co-star Noah Baumbach’s White Noise.
AFI Fest, headquartered at the TCL Chinese Theater in Hollywood and running October 25-29, recently revealed its full lineup, which includes a world premiere of Sam Esmail’s apocalyptic thriller Leave the World Behind, with Julia Roberts, Mahershala Ali, Ethan Hawke. , Myha’la Herrold, Farrah Mackenzie, Charlie Evans and Kevin Bacon on opening night. It concludes on October 29 with a screening of Bradley Cooper’s Maestro featuring the filmmaker alongside Carey Mulligan, Matt Bomer, Maya Hawke, Sarah Silverman and others. Maxine’s Baby: The Tyler Perry Story by Gelila Bekele and Armani Ortiz will serve as the centerpiece on October 27.
