Sir Peter Jackson has been feted at the Cannes Film Festival.
The renowned New Zealand film-maker received an honorary Palme d’Or, awarded to directors, actors and cinema figures who have distinguished themselves in the art.
Lord of the Rings star Elijah Wood, title="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/waikato-news/news/lord-of-the-rings-star-elijah-wood-crashes-couples-hobbiton-wedding/DJOI7S5CX5DXZAP5FTV5TFUJI4/">who played Frodo Baggins in the film franchise, presented the award to Jackson.
On stage, Wood recalled meeting Jackson for the first time after sending in an audition video for the project that would be his big break.
“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 my life had just been divided into before and after,” Wood remembered.
“I know I’m far from the only person who has had their life changed by Peter Jackson.”
Accepting the award from Wood with a hug, Jackson joked that he’d “grown a little bit of facial hair” since they met 27 years ago.
“If someone does a remake of Gone With the Wind, it could be your role,” Jackson jibed.
He reflected with gratitude about how Cannes shaped the series’ success.
Jackson, 64, first attended the influential film festival in 1988 to promote Bad Taste, before returning in 2001 for a preview event teasing footage from the first film in his The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
“We had shot Lord of the Rings over three years, and we shot all three films at the same time,” he recalled.
“And the press was sort of weird, it was a strange time because Warners was being sold – what goes around, comes around – and so all the press was sort of talking about this great folly. 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.”
The first 20 minutes of The Fellowship of the Ring was shown to industry audiences in an effort to build buzz about the scale and ambition of the adaptive trilogy. At the time, fantasy films were often viewed by studios as commercially risky artistic niches and Jackson was not yet considered a mainstream Hollywood blockbuster director.
“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, and Bob’s great gamble really changed the perception of the film,” Jackson said - paying tribute to New Line Cinema founder Bob Shaye.
“And for me, obviously, it was a life-changing thing. So by the time the film came out, there was an anticipation that there wouldn’t have been if not for Cannes.”
Positive early reactions from those at the festival helped convince people that a film version of The Lord of the Rings was actually possible – many had considered it unfilmable – building a narrative that the New Zealand-filmed trilogy was globally important.
In 2010, Jackson was knighted for his significant contribution to the Kiwi film industry.
Wētā FX, which created the digital visual effects for the films and subsequently became one of the world’s most respected film-effects companies, reflected that it was “an event that would forever change filmmaking”.
On Instagram, the studio shared images taken while Jackson and the team were preparing the Balin’s Tomb sequence that would be part of the screening.
“Twenty-five years later, Peter has returned to Cannes to receive an Honorary Palme d’Or, celebrating an extraordinary career that has shaped modern filmmaking through unforgettable storytelling, cinematic artistry and technical advancements,” the caption read.
“Congratulations, Peter! 👏 Your Wētā FX whānau and all of Aotearoa, New Zealand is incredibly proud!"