Peter Jackson received an honorary Palme d’Or on Tuesday as the 79th edition of the Cannes Film Festival officially opened at the Palais’ Grand Lumiére Theatre.
Jackson was presented with the award by Elijah Wood, who played Frodo Baggins in Jackson’s blockbuster Lord of the Rings trilogy.
“I sat down on the floor of my bedroom and knew my life had been divided into before and after,” Wood told attendees. “Peter grew up […] in a country that back then barely had a film industry at all,” Wood said. “But in true Pete fashion, that was not about to hold him back… When I was just 18 years old, The Lord of the Rings was not just the beginning of Frodo’s journey, but the beginning of my own. So Pete, I truly have. no words to thank you for that.”
The New Zealand filmmaker first arrived at Cannes with his debut feature Bad Taste in 1987. In 2001, he returned to screen preview footage from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, the first instalment in the trilogy that would eventually earn 17 Academy Awards.
Following a standing ovation and embrace from Wood, Jackson recalled making Bad Taste over weekends across four years while employed as a photo engraver in New Zealand.
“If the film hadn’t sold well at the marketplace here, I would have gone back to New Zealand to my photo engraver job. Fortunately, it sold really well. It started my career,” Jackson said.
Jackson also reminisced about bringing early footage from the Lord of the Rings franchise to Cannes at a time when the films faced heavy scrutiny because studio Warner Bros. was up for sale.
“What goes around comes around,” Jackson joked, referencing the ongoing sale of Warner Bros to Paramount Skydance owner David Ellison.
“We brought 20 minutes here in 2001 and did some press in a castle up in the hills,” Jackson said. “That gamble changed the perception of the film. By the time [Fellowship of the Ring] came out in December, there was an anticipation that wouldn’t have happened unless it was for Cannes.”
After concluding his remarks, Jackson received another lengthy standing ovation before host Eye Haïdara introduced a surprise tribute. Following footage from Jackson’s Beatles documentary, French-Congolese singer and rapper Theodora and French singer-songwriter Oklou performed Get Back, prompting Jackson to clap, sing along and nod to the music from his seat.
The 79th annual Cannes Film Festival runs from May 13 to May 26.