Elijah Wood Presents Peter Jackson With Honorary Palme d’Or at Cannes

Peter Jackson walked into the Grand Lumière Theatre at the Palais des Festivals on Tuesday night and walked out a Palme d’Or man — even if he’s still not entirely sure he deserves to be one.

“I’ve still got to work out why I am getting a Palme d’Or,” the beloved New Zealand filmmaker, 64, quipped to the crowd. “I am not a Palme d’Or type of guy.” The room, of course, disagreed — and gave him a standing ovation anyway.

The honorary prize was presented by the person perhaps best positioned to give it: Elijah Wood, who at 18 years old stepped into a casting office and came out as Frodo Baggins. The two haven’t just made movie history together — they’ve been close ever since. And on the opening night of the 79th Cannes Film Festival, Wood made that abundantly clear.

“My Life Had Just Been Divided Into Before and After”

Wood, 45, took the stage and told the story of how it all began — with a homemade VHS tape filmed in the woods of Griffith Park. Jackson and his longtime partner and collaborator Fran Walsh had flown to Los Angeles specifically to meet the young actor who’d sent it in.

“I walked into Victoria Burrows’ casting office and there they were, Pete and Fran, together as they’d been for almost every day since they first met sometime in the late ’80s,” Wood told the audience. “And when, a little while later, the call came that I was going to be Frodo Baggins, I sat down on the floor of my bedroom and I understood with the whole of my being that my life had just been divided into before and after. And I know I’m far from the only person who has had their life changed by Peter Jackson.”

He wasn’t done. “Peter grew up in a country that back then barely had a film industry at all,” Wood continued, beaming. “But in true Pete fashion, that was not about to hold him back. So Pete, I truly have no words to thank you for that.”

Jackson accepted the trophy with a hug — and a joke. Noting that it had been 27 years since their first meeting, he looked at Wood and said: “You’ve grown a little bit of facial hair. If someone does a remake of Gone With the Wind, it could be your role.”

Wood was joined at the ceremony by his wife, Danish film producer Mette-Marie Kongsved. Jackson brought along his two children, Billy and Katie.

How Cannes Saved Lord of the Rings

The laughs gave way to something more reflective when Jackson talked about what Cannes actually means to him — and it turns out, it means everything.

His first connection to the festival came in 1987, when he brought his debut feature Bad Taste to the Cannes market. “If the film hadn’t sold well at the marketplace here, I would have gone back to New Zealand to my photo engraver job,” he said, referencing the day job he’d held while making the film on weekends over four years. “Fortunately, it sold really well. It started my career.”

But the more consequential Cannes moment came in 2001, when the press cycle around The Lord of the Rings had turned genuinely ugly. The films had been shot over three years — all three simultaneously — but the studio landscape had grown turbulent. Warner Bros. was caught up in the disastrous AOL-Time Warner merger, and the narrative in the press had curdled into something close to mockery.

“All the press was sort of talking about this great folly,” Jackson recalled. “What happens if the first film fails? What are they going to do about films two and three because they’re already made? It was a huge gamble, but all the media was talking about that the gamble was going to fail.”

New Line Cinema founder Bob Shaye decided to fight back — by bringing 20 minutes of The Fellowship of the Ring to Cannes that May, months before the December release. “We quickly cut together 20 minutes of film, really fast, and we brought that 20 minutes here in 2001 in May, and we did some press in that castle up on the hill and had a party there,” Jackson said. “Bob’s great gamble really changed the perception of the film. By the time it came out, there was an anticipation that there wouldn’t have been if not for Cannes.”

The rest, as they say, is cinema history. The Lord of the Rings trilogy went on to win 17 Oscars — including Best Picture for The Return of the King — and Jackson’s name became synonymous with epic, large-scale storytelling. “There is clearly a before and an after Peter Jackson,” Cannes chief Thierry Frémaux said ahead of the ceremony. “Larger-than-life cinema is his trademark, and his all-encompassing art of entertainment is particularly ambitious. Peter Jackson is not only a great technician; he is above all a tremendous storyteller.”

He couldn’t resist a wink at current events, either. With Warner Bros. once again in the middle of a major sale — this time to Paramount Skydance owner David Ellison — Jackson grinned at the crowd and said simply: “What goes around comes around.” The room laughed.

After Jackson’s speech brought another extended standing ovation, ceremony host Eye Haïdara surprised him with one more gift: a clip from his Beatles documentary flashed on screen, and then French-Congolese singer Theodora and French artist Oklou walked out to perform “Get Back” live. Jackson bopped his head, clapped his hands, and sang along. Jury member Demi Moore, watching from her seat, did the same.

A Star-Studded Night to Open the 79th Festival

Jackson joins an elite group of filmmakers and actors who’ve received the honorary Palme d’Or, including Agnès Varda, Jodie Foster, Meryl Streep, Robert De Niro and Tom Cruise.

The rest of the opening night was equally electric. Jane Fonda and Chinese actress Gong Li took the stage together to officially declare the festival open — a pairing that felt intentional. “Jane comes from the West,” Gong said. “And I come from the East. Tonight we stand together here. This is the magic of the Cannes Film Festival.”

Fonda, never one to stay quiet when the moment calls for something more, added: “I believe in the power of voices — voices on the screen, voices off the screen, and definitely voices in the street, especially now. Cinema has always been an act of resistance because we tell the stories, and stories are what make a civilization.” She closed with a rallying cry: “Let’s celebrate audacity, freedom and the fierce act of creation.”

Jury president Park Chan-wook addressed the 22 films in competition, noting that while the selection may be small, the number of people who worked on them runs into the thousands. The jury he’s leading includes Demi Moore, Chloé Zhao, Stellan Skarsgård, Ruth Negga, Laura Wandel, Diego Céspedes, Isaach De Bankolé and Paul Laverty.

The opening-night film was Pierre Salvadori’s La Vénus Électrique — known in English as The Electric Kiss — a period romantic comedy set in 1920s Paris, starring Pio Marmaï, Anaïs Demoustier, Vimala Pons and Gilles Lellouche. The film follows a grieving painter who accidentally begins a fake séance arrangement with a carnival worker, with predictably chaotic results.

Also on the red carpet: Joan Collins, Diego Luna, Heidi Klum, James Franco, Alia Bhatt, Tyrese Gibson, Bong Joon Ho and Maika Monroe, among others.

Competition screenings kick off Wednesday, with the Palme d’Or winner to be announced at the closing ceremony on May 23. The lineup includes buzzy titles featuring Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson, Rami Malek, Sandra Hüller, Léa Seydoux, Catherine Deneuve, Michael Fassbender, Sebastian Stan and Pedro Almodóvar’s latest — which means the next 11 days on the Croisette are going to be very, very busy.

But Tuesday night belonged to Peter Jackson. And to the kid from New Zealand who made a movie on weekends, shipped it to a French film festival, and never looked back.