When he returned home, he picked up a director role on the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
He said that before his career took off, he always believed New Zealand needed its own national cinema.
"And we were going to get one, one way or another."
His first runaway hit, Goodbye Pork Pie, came about after a chat with a visiting friend who had been hitchhiking.
"(He) told me the story about being picked up by a couple of jokers in a car that were selling bits of it and then he realised it was a rental.
"And I thought, well, there's probably a story in that."
He and the team who worked on the movie "had a lot of faith", that even though the Film Commission didn't exist and there was no way of paying to have the film made, it would somehow get done.
The movie was made on the tightest budget, but still became an "outrageous success", he said.
Being awarded the honour today by Governor-General Lieutenant General Sir Jerry Mateparae felt like he had come full circle, Murphy said.
"When we came into the room the pianist was playing To the Spring, which my mother used to play, and it made me feel like she was in the room."
