Cannes 2024: Fest kicks off with a Palme d’Or for Meryl Streep and a post-’Barbie’ fete of Greta Gerwig

The festival’s first lengthy standing ovation, though, went to Streep, who was awarded an honorary Palme d’Or during Tuesday’s opening ceremony. 

Beneath intermittent rainy skies, the Cannes Film Festival opened on Tuesday with the presentation of an honorary Palme d'Or for Meryl Streep and the unveiling of Greta Gerwig's jury, as the French Riviera spectacular kicked off a potentially volatile 77th edition.

A 10-day stream of stars began flowing down the Cannes' red carpet with the opening night film, “The Second Act,” a French comedy starring Lea Seydoux, Vincent Lindon, Louis Garrel and Raphael Quenard. They play squabbling actors filming a movie directed by an artificial intelligence.

The festival's first lengthy standing ovation, though, went to Streep, who was awarded an honorary Palme d'Or during Tuesday's opening ceremony. After Juliette Binoche introduced her, Streep alternatively shook her head, fanned herself and danced while the crowd thunderously cheered.

“I'm just so grateful that you haven't gotten sick of my face and you haven't gotten off of the train,” said Streep, who soon thereafter declared Cannes officially open with Binoche.

“My mother, who is usually right about everything, said to me: 'Meryl, my darling, you'll see. It all goes so fast. So fast," added Streep. “And it has, and it does. Except for my speech, which is too long.” The reception was nearly as rapturous for Gerwig, the first American female filmmaker to serve as president of the Cannes jury that will decide the festival's top award, the Palme d'Or.

Thierry Fremaux, Cannes' artistic director, on Monday praised her as “the ideal director” for Cannes, given her work across arthouse and studio film and her interest in cinema history. And, Fremaux said, “We very much liked 'Barbie'.” In the days to come, Cannes will premiere George Miller's “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga," Francis Ford Coppola's self-financed “Megalopolis” and anticipated new movies from Paolo Sorrentino, Yorgos Lanthimos, Andrea Arnold and Kevin Costner.

But much of the drama surrounding this year's Cannes has been off screen.