\n\t\u201cPeter grew up [\u2026] in a country that back then barely had a film industry at all,\u201d continued Wood, beaming at attendees. \u201cBut in true Pete fashion, that was not about to hold him back\u2026 When I was just 18 years old, The Lord of the Rings was not just the beginning of Frodo\u2019s journey, but the beginning of my own. So Pete, I truly have. no words to thank you for that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe filmmaker, from New Zealand, came to the market with his first-ever feature Bad Taste in 1987. In 2001, he also screened a preview sequence from The Lord of the Rings, the first of a trilogy that would go on to nab the Kiwi 17 Oscars.<\/p>\n
\n\tAfter a standing ovation and celebratory hug from Wood, Jackson talked about making Bad Taste on weekends over four years while working as a photo engraver in New Zealand. \u201cIf the film hadn\u2019t sold well at the marketplace here, I would have gone back to New Zealand to my photo engraver job. Fortunately, it sold really well. It started my career.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tJackson then talked about bringing Lord of the Rings footage to the festival when the franchise was under a lot of scrutiny in the press because the films\u2019 studio, Warner Bros., was up for sale. \u201cWhat goes around comes around,\u201d joked Jackson to laughs from the crowd, referencing the ongoing sale of Warner Bros to Paramount Skydance owner David Ellison.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWe brought 20 minutes here in 2001 and did some press in a castle up in the hills,\u201d remembered Jackson. \u201cThat gamble changed the perception of the film. By the time [Fellowship of the Ring] came out in December, there was an anticipation that wouldn\u2019t have happened unless it was for Cannes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tAfter Jackson closed his speech, he was greeted by another lengthy standing ovation. Gala ceremony host Eye Ha\u00efdara asked the filmmaker to stay at center stage for a special surprise. After a brief clip of Jackson\u2019s Beatles documentary flashed on the big screen, French-Congolese singer and rapper Theodora and French singer-songwriter Oklou walked into the lights to perform \u201cGet Back,\u201d a rendition so rousing that it had Jackson bopping his head, clapping his hands and singing along to the lyrics (as was jury member Moore). <\/p>\n
\n\tJane Fonda<\/a> and Gong Li then teamed up to officially declare the opening of the 79th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, an honor typically handled by a solo presenter but this year a duo. \u201cJane comes from the West,\u201d Gong stated. \u201cAnd I come from the East. Tonight we stand together here. This is the magic of the Cannes Film Festival.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tShe added, \u201cCinema goes beyond the languages, cultures and the generations. It speaks to what we all share \u2014 human emotions. Cinema allows us to meet and to connect. This is the power of the movies.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tFonda then took the spotlight and nodded to the fractured political and social landscape. \u201cI believe in the power of voices,\u201d she said. \u201cVoices on the screen, voices off the screen, and definitely voices in the street \u2014 especially now. Cinema has always been an act of resistance because we tell the stories and stories are what make a civilization, stories that bring empathy to the marginalized, stories that allow us to feel across differences.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tFonda then put an exclamation point on the sentiment by stating, \u201cLet\u2019s celebrate audacity, freedom and the fierce act of creation.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAfter a brief intermission, the celebration continued with the world premiere of Pierre Salvadori\u2019s La V\u00e9nus \u00e9lectrique to help kick off the proceedings of the prestigious film festival, which this year has seemingly spooked Hollywood entirely. Naturally, The Hollywood Reporter took a deep dive<\/a> into the social media pile-ons, eye-watering costs and string of high-profile misfires that have put major studios off a trip to the Palais.<\/p>\n \n\tSalvadori and the cast of La V\u00e9nus \u00e9lectrique took to the iconic steps before a screening. Set in 1920s Paris, it follows a young painter in vogue, Antoine Balestro, played by Pio Marma\u00ef. He has been unable to paint since his wife died, much to the despair of his gallery owner, Armand. But one drunken evening, Antoine tries to contact his wife through a psychic, and unbeknownst to him, is actually speaking with Suzanne,\u00a0a humble carnival worker. Soon, aided by Armand, she stages one fake s\u00e9ance after another.<\/p>\n \n\tOutside the building, fans flanked the red carpet, keen to catch a glimpse of Jackson, Salvadori and the La V\u00e9nus \u00e9lectrique cast, and a star-spangled competition jury that boasts Park Chan-wook, Demi Moore, Chlo\u00e9 Zhao, Stellan Skarsg\u00e5rd, Laura Wandel, Diego C\u00e9spedes, Isaach De Bankol\u00e9 and Paul Laverty.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tGong Li and Jane Fonda during opening ceremony.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t(Photo by Andreas Rentz\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n \n\tThe inclusion of Hollywood names like Moore, Zhao and Skarsgard is bolstered only by the likes of Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson and Miles Teller for James Gray\u2019s Paper Tiger, Rami Malek for Ira Sachs\u2019 The Man I Love, as well as Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve for Fjord. At least in the competition selection, anyway.<\/p>\n \n\tAt the opening ceremony, President Park took to the stage for his speech and acknowledged the number of creatives employed by the films showing at Cannes, saying, \u201cThere are only 22 films but the number who worked on them are in the thousands. If we consider [their] families, it might even reach the ten thousands.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tHe added of the jury: \u201cI asked Paul if he fought a lot with Ken Loach when they worked together. He said \u2018We argued a lot, but we didn\u2019t fight.\u2019 Our jurors will do the same.\u201d He implored those in the audience to do the same \u2014\u00a0not fight with each other, but argue.<\/p>\n \n\tOther industry figures on hand at the opening night ceremony were Palme winner Bong Joon Ho, Diego Luna, Louis Garrel, Joan Collins, Heidi Klum and reality TV star Maura Higgins.<\/p>\n \n\tOver 40,000 film professionals from 140 countries <\/a>have descended on the C\u00f4te d\u2019Azur town to witness some of the brightest talent international<\/a> cinema has to offer in action. THR\u2018s chief film critic David Rooney weighed in on his 10 must-see movies from the 2026 festival, such as the Sandra\u00a0H\u00fcller-starring Fatherland and Asghar Farhadi\u2019s Parallel Tales, here<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n\tThe 79th annual Cannes Film Festival will run May 13-26.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tPeter Jackson, Elijah Wood, Gong Li, Jane Fonda, jury president Park Chan-wook, Demi Moore, gala host Eye Haidara, Isaach de Bankol\u00e9, Ruth Negga, Chlo\u00e9 Zhao, Laura Wandel and Stellan Skarsg\u00e5rd on stage during the opening ceremony.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhoto by Aurore Marechal\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tJames Franco, in Armani, and Izabel Pakzad<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t(Photo by Amy Sussman\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tDame Joan Collins <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t(Photo by Aurore Marechal\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Peter Jackson says he\u2019s not really a \u201cPalme kinda guy\u201d but the Cannes Film Festival made him one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":438476,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[183684,458,78023,146,85,399,46,19569],"class_list":["post-438475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-cannes-2026","tag-celebrities","tag-elijah-wood","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-international","tag-israel","tag-jane-fonda"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=438475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/438476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-hollywoodreporter-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
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