Film director, Peter Jackson, was honoured with an honorary Palme d’Or as the 2026 Cannes Film Festival officially opened Tuesday night at the Palais Grand Lumiére Theatre.
The acclaimed director joked that he was never really a “Palme kinda guy,” but Cannes made him one anyway as he accepted the prestigious award from Elijah Wood, his longtime collaborator from the blockbuster ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring’ trilogy.
During his tribute speech, Wood reflected on receiving the life-changing call that he had been cast as Frodo Baggins. “I sat down on the floor of my bedroom and knew my life had been divided into before and after,” he told the audience.
Praising Jackson’s journey from New Zealand to global acclaim, Wood noted that the filmmaker came from a country that “barely had a film industry at all” at the time. “But in true Pete fashion, that was not about to hold him back,” he added. “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.”
Jackson also reflected on his humble beginnings, recalling how he spent four years shooting his first feature film, ‘Bad Taste’, on weekends while working 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,” Jackson said. “Fortunately, it sold really well. It started my career.”
The Oscar-winning filmmaker first arrived at Cannes with ‘Bad Taste’ in 1987 and later returned in 2001 to present preview footage from ‘The Lord of the Rings’ trilogy, which eventually earned 17 Academy Awards.
