• The festival will dedicate a retrospective at the CCCC to the actress, screenwriter and director who became an icon of the ‘mumblecore’ movement.
• The programme will conclude with a surprise screening selected by the audience.

Cinema Jove, the international film festival of the Valencian Community organised by the Regional Ministry of Education, Culture and Universities and promoted by the Valencian Institute of Culture (IVC), will devote its customary retrospective on the early years of an influential and established director’s career to Greta Gerwig (United States, 1983), one of the filmmakers who has redefined the role of women in the Hollywood industry.

The cultural event will revisit at the Centre del Carme the trajectory of an artist who has successfully evolved from the austerity of the most radical independent cinema to leading major studio productions.

“Greta Gerwig is remarkably versatile. She made her debut very early on as an actress and writer in ‘indie’ cinema and has managed to establish herself as a leading director before the age of 40. She has also carved out a path in a male-dominated environment and become a role model for new generations. I can think of no one better to represent what it means to be a young filmmaker today,” said Cinema Jove director María Albiñana.

The cycle will consist of six titles and the screening of a final film intended to directly involve audiences in the festival’s programming.

From an independent subgenre to working side by side with Noah Baumbach

The selection includes two key ‘mumblecore’ films, Hannah Takes the Stairs (Joe Swanberg, 2007) and Nights and Weekends (Greta Gerwig and Joe Swanberg, 2008). Both belong to her period as a leading figure within this independent subgenre, characterised by low budgets, naturalistic dialogue, a tendency towards tragicomedy, and a focus on the personal relationships of an urban and disoriented generation.

Gerwig not only stars in these films, but also reveals, through her involvement in the screenplay and co-direction of the latter, a distinctive voice seeking to transcend performance. This creative drive was consolidated when she began collaborating with Noah Baumbach.

From this partnership, Cinema Jove has programmed the modern black-and-white classic Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach, 2012), about a dancer trying to establish herself professionally in New York.

Her transition to solo directing came five years later with Lady Bird (2017), a love letter to her hometown of Sacramento. The coming-of-age film, nominated in five Academy Award categories, starred Saoirse Ronan, who would also lead Gerwig’s second film, the adaptation of Little Women (2019).

An injection of feminism into a literary classic and a doll

Gerwig’s technical maturity became evident in her next two projects. With her reinterpretation of Louisa May Alcott’s formative novel, she demonstrated a keen ability to bring contemporaneity and a feminist perspective to a story previously adapted on multiple occasions. In her version, she altered the temporal structure and granted professional independence to Jo March, who in the film fulfils her vocation as a writer.

Cinema Jove’s selection is completed by the biggest cultural phenomenon of the decade, Barbie (2023), in which the Californian filmmaker transformed the doll’s journey into a sharp critique of patriarchy. The comedy, nominated for eight Academy Awards and winner of Best Original Song for What Was I Made For?, made Gerwig the first woman to direct a film that surpassed one billion dollars at the box office.

In search of audience engagement

Finally, Cinema Jove aims to directly involve audiences in the curation of the cycle ‘The Young Greta Gerwig’ through an open call on social media.

The festival takes a further step in its philosophy of audience engagement by placing the closing screening in the hands of an anonymous programmer. Through this initiative, a regular festivalgoer will have the opportunity to choose the film that will conclude the tribute to the filmmaker.

The surprise screening will be a work that has directly inspired the artist or that maintains a close thematic or aesthetic connection with her filmography. The selection will not be made public until shortly before the screening, during the course of Cinema Jove.