Peter Jackson: Palme d’Or Honoree Credits Cannes Fest for Saving ‘Lord of the Rings’: ‘It Was a Huge Gamble’

New Zealand director, screenwriter and producer Peter Jackson receives his Honorary Palme d'Or from US actor Elijah Wood during the Opening Ceremony at the 79th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France, on May 12, 2026. (Photo by Valery HACHE / AFP via Getty Images) — AFP via Getty Images

It was a Lord of the Rings reunion at Cannes Film Fest on Tuesday night, May 12, as Oscar-winning director Peter Jackson receivedthe honorary Palme d’Or from Elijah Wood, who played Frodo Baggins in the fantasy franchise.

How Elijah Wood Was Cast

In his speech, Wood recalled meeting Jackson for the first time at 18 after sending in an audition video. “He had seen a VHS tape I’d made with friends in the woods of Griffith Park, and now they wanted to meet the young man who had sent it,” Wood said. “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 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.”

Accepting the award from Wood with a hug, Jackson commented that he’s “grown a little bit of facial hair” since the first time they met 27 years ago. “If someone does a remake of ‘Gone With the Wind,’ it could be your role,” Jackson joked.

How Cannes Fest Saved The Lord of the Rings in 2001

He then delivered a heartfelt speech about how Cannes helped to save The Lord of the Rings franchise after bad press during the disastrous AOL-Time Warner merger.

“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.”

But New Line Cinema founder Bob Shaye had a plan. He decided to screen 20 minutes of the first film, “The Fellowship of the Ring,” at the 2001 festival to try and rewrite the narrative.

“Bob Shaye rolled the dice and so we had to quickly finish 20 minutes of the film. 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. “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.”

Twenty-five years later, “Lord of the Rings” is still going strong. Jackson executive produced the animated installment “The War of the Rohirrim” in 2024, Gollum actor Andy Serkis is stepping behind the camera to direct 2027’s “Hunt for Gollum” and in March Jackson announced that Stephen Colbert and his son Peter are developing the next chapter in the franchise, titled “Shadows of the Past.”

Jackson joins a prestigious list of previous Cannes honorary Palme recipients, including Agnès Varda, Marco Bellocchio, Jodie Foster, Meryl Streep, Robert De Niro and Tom Cruise.

The 2026 Cannes Film Festival runs through May 23.