“To be honoured with an Honorary Palme d’Or at Cannes is one of the greatest privileges of my career” Peter Jackson said. “Cannes has been a meaningful part of my filmmaking journey. In 1988, I attended the Festival Marketplace with my first movie, Bad Taste, then in 2001 we screened a preview sequence from The Fellowship of the Ring, both of which were important milestones in my career. This festival has always celebrated bold, visionary cinema, and I’m incredibly grateful to the Festival de Cannes for being recognised among the filmmakers and the artists whose work continues to inspire me.”
It was May 13, 2001. Baz Luhrmann and Moulin Rouge!had opened the 54th Festival de Cannes. Nanni Moretti was about to receive the Palme d’Or for The Son’s Room from Jury President Liv Ullmann. Peter Jackson’s life was to be changed by 26 minutes on the Croisette: the first images, the first breathtaking shots of The Fellowship of the Ring, still on the editing table, for a press screening seven months before its worldwide release.
Initial skepticism turned into general hysteria. The sweeping success of the Middle-earth saga began that day. Triumphing in their wild gamble, Peter Jackson and New Line Cinema (and in France, the Hadida brothers’ Metropolitan Filmexport) embarked on a path of global glory and recognition, both critical and public, with 17 Oscars (including 11 for the last opus in the series, as many as Ben-Hur and Titanic) and $3 billion in revenue (the 8th most profitable cinematic venture in history with 10 times less investment).
Twenty-five years later, the Festival de Cannes will celebrate Peter Jackson at its opening ceremony on Tuesday, May 12, 2026.
Festival President Iris Knobloch is delighted that, “for its 79th year, the Festival welcomes and thanks a filmmaker of boundless creativity who has brought prestige to the heroic fantasy genre.”
Festival Director Thierry Frémaux confirms that there is “clearly a before and an after Peter Jackson. Larger-than-life cinema is his trademark, and his all-encompassing art of entertainment is particularly ambitious. He has permanently transformed Hollywood cinema and its conception of the spectacle. But Peter Jackson is not only a great technician; he is above all a tremendous storyteller. And an unpredictable artist: what will his next universe be?”
Indeed, few filmmakers have so unquestionably initiated such decisive shifts in their practice. Peter Jackson, film director, producer, and screenwriter, is one of them. His epic Lord of the Rings trilogy, beginning in 2001, revolutionized the way images are made, worlds are created, and stories are told on the big screen. An undertaking without precedent at the time, the film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s monumental work of fantasy literature, which was considered impossible, was far from a sure thing. After a few critically acclaimed successes (Bad Taste, 1987; Braindead, 1992; Heavenly Creatures, 1994), Peter Jackson set out to prepare three episodes to be released one year apart: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Two Towers (2002), and The Return of the King (2003). Filmed entirely and simultaneously in the sumptuous setting of New Zealand, which also hosted the post-production of special effects, editing, and mixing, the trilogy presented a colossal logistical challenge: two years of pre-production, 274 days of filming, three years of post-production, 20,602 extras, 2,400 technicians, and a budget of $1 million per day!
Tolkien’s original is all there, rendered with phenomenal intensity, striking realism, and impressive fidelity: the sinister Mines of Moria, the legendary face-off between Gandalf and the Balrog, the apocalyptic Battle of Helm’s Deep, the spectacular cavalry charge of the Rohirrim in the Pelennor Fields, and the final confrontation at the Gates of Mordor in an indescribable deluge of barbarism. Supported by Wētā FX, his special effects studio in Wellington that would later work on Avatar, Peter Jackson navigates between an algorithm that allows him to recreate epic crowd and battle scenes, and special effects as old as cinema itself, using positioning, natural sets, and camera lenses, without digital manipulation. This subtle balance protects the authenticity of the project and undeniably allows the trilogy to stand the test of time, while making Tolkien’s universe omnipresent in pop culture to this day.
After this global success, Peter Jackson signed on in 2005 to remake the legendary King Kong. A few years later, he returned to Tolkien’s Middle-earth to direct The Hobbittrilogy between 2012 and 2014.
