It was a full-circle moment for Peter Jackson and Elijah Wood at Cannes. More than two decades after they helped redefine blockbuster fantasy together with The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, the actor who played Frodo Baggins reunited with the legendary filmmaker Tuesday night at the Festival de Cannes to present Jackson with an honorary Palme d’Or during the festival’s opening ceremony.
Wood delivered an emotional tribute before presenting the award, reflecting on Jackson’s extraordinary journey from aspiring filmmaker in New Zealand to one of the most influential directors in modern cinema.
“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.”
The actor also acknowledged the life-changing impact Jackson had on his own career after casting him as Frodo at just 18 years old. “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,” Wood told the audience. “So Pete, I truly have no words to thank you for that.”
Jackson received the prestigious honor in recognition of a career spanning cult horror films, groundbreaking fantasy epics, and acclaimed documentaries. While much of the world knows him for directing The Lord of the Rings Trilogy and King Kong, Jackson used the moment to reflect on how Cannes itself played a critical role in launching his career decades earlier.
The filmmaker recalled bringing his low-budget splatter comedy Bad Taste to Cannes in the late 1980s, explaining that the film’s success at the market effectively changed the trajectory of his life. “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.”
Jackson also credited Cannes with helping shift industry perception of the enormous gamble of filming all three Lord of the Rings movies simultaneously, a move viewed skeptically at the time amid the chaos of the AOL-Time Warner merger. “We shot all three films at the same time,” Jackson explained. “And all the media was talking about this great folly. What happens if the first film fails?”
According to Jackson, an early Cannes presentation of footage from Fellowship of the Ring in 2001 helped dramatically change the conversation around the project before release.
“Bob Shaye rolled the dice,” Jackson said of the former New Line Cinema executive. “By the time the film came out there was an anticipation that there wouldn’t have been if not for Cannes.”
The reunion between Jackson and Wood instantly became one of the festival’s most nostalgic and emotional moments, reminding audiences just how deeply The Lord of the Rings Trilogy continues to resonate with moviegoers across generations.
And honestly, seeing Frodo hand a Palme d’Or to Gandalf-level Peter Jackson in Cannes feels weirdly correct.
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