{"id":639234,"date":"2026-05-12T20:56:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T20:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/639234\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T20:56:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T20:56:11","slug":"cannes-kicks-off-with-peter-jackson-and-lack-of-hollywood-stars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/639234\/","title":{"rendered":"Cannes Kicks Off With Peter Jackson and Lack of Hollywood Stars"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe 79th edition of the Cannes Film Festival<\/a>, which launched on Tuesday night, is missing big studio movies and Hollywood stars. But at least it had a visitor from Middle Earth. Peter Jackson<\/a>, the director of the \u201cLord of the Rings,\u201d touched down in the South of France to accept an honorary Palme d\u2019Or ahead of the opening night movie, \u201cThe Electric Kiss,\u201d a French romantic comedy set in the 1920s.<\/p>\n

\n\tOn a sunny and windy afternoon, he walked the red carpet alongside a smattering of celebrities that made their way to Cannes (from Diego Luna to \u201cEmily in Paris\u201d star Lucas Bravo to Tyrese Gibson) and a jury that includes Demi Moore, Chlo\u00e9 Zhao, Ruth Negga, Stellan Skarsg\u00e5rd, and Park Chan-wook, the latter of whom serves as its president. Without as many A-list arrivals, the flashing cameras from the wall of photographers stationed outside the theater remained dark for long stretches of the muted opening ceremony.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat it lacked in star power, the first night in Cannes made up for in controversial appearances. James Franco, whose career was derailed by allegations of sexually inappropriate behavior, was mobbed by fans in the lobby of the Palais in the break between the ceremony and opening night screening. He took selfies before ducking into the outdoor smoking patio where Luna grabbed his arm. \u201cHow are you, man?\u201d Luna asked as Franco, in sunglasses, nodded at him.<\/p>\n

\n\tJane Fonda<\/a> brought some much-needed movie glamour in a shimmering black dress and bejeweled necklace that looked like the Heart of the Ocean from \u201cTitanic.\u201d Jackson, flanked by \u201cLord of the Rings\u201d star Elijah Wood, flashed a thumbs up to the paparazzi. There was light applause inside the Palais as the cast of \u201cThe Electric Kiss\u201d ascended the theater steps.<\/p>\n

\n\tWood was on hand to present Jackson with his prize, recounting the impact that the director\u2019s massively successful J.R.R. Tolkien adaptations, shot in his native New Zealand, had on cinema. \u201cYou showed the world something it had never seen before, and nothing was ever the same,\u201d Wood, who played Frodo Baggins told his director, adding, \u201cHe helped build an entirely new filmmaking culture at the far edge of the world.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tA buoyant Jackson accepted the honor while remembering the bold decision to shoot most of the \u201cLord of Rings\u201d trilogy simultaneously. \u201cIt was a huge gamble,\u201d he admitted.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe media dubbed the project a \u201cfolly\u201d and predicted the expensive bet might not pay off if the first movie fell flat. That narrative, Jackson noted, was upended after a rapturously received screening of 20 minutes of footage from \u201cThe Fellowship of the Ring,\u201d at Cannes in 2001. \u201cIt changed the perception of the film,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis year marks festival director Thierry Fremaux\u2019s 25th edition at the helm, a tenure during which Cannes has weathered streaming wars, a pandemic and political upheaval while fiercely defending its status as cinema\u2019s ultimate global stage.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut the chatter around the Croisette feel unusually charged this year \u2014 for good reasons. Hollywood is in flux, studios are pulling back from splurging at festivals, A.I. looms over creative jobs, wars are raging in different corners of the world, and fears over hantavirus are mounting. Perhaps economic uncertainty played a part, but this year\u2019s lineup lacks major blockbusters, in marked contrast to previous editions of Cannes where Tom Cruise premiered sequels to \u201cMission: Impossible\u201d and \u201cTop Gun\u201d and Harrison Ford unveiled \u201cIndiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThere had been hopes that Christopher Nolan or Steven Spielberg might bring \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d or \u201cDisclosure Day\u201d to the festival, but they opted not to touch down on the C\u00f4te d\u2019Azur.\u00a0That\u2019s left Cannes leaning on a lineup of international auteurs like Pedro Almod\u00f3var (\u201cBitter Christmas\u201d), Pawe\u0142 Pawlikowski (\u201cFatherland\u201d) and Cristian Mungiu (\u201cFjord\u201d) to fill the void.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe ceremony\u2019s host Eye Ha\u00efdara sounded a political note in her introductory remarks, welcoming \u201cdear guests here with us; dear viewers; and dear internet users around the world \u2014 or rather, everywhere where the internet hasn\u2019t been cut off; everywhere where artificial intelligence hasn\u2019t replaced reality\u2026 all of you who are trying to resist, here and elsewhere.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tFonda, on hand to declare Cannes officially open, picked up the mantle. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI believe that cinema has always been an act of resistance, because we tell stories and stories are what make a civilization\u201d she said. \u201cStories that bring empathy to the marginalized, stories that allow us to feel across difference. Stories that let us see that there is an alternative future that is possible.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 79th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, which launched on Tuesday night, is missing big studio movies…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":639235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[32176,88,24550,106429],"class_list":["post-639234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-cannes-film-festival","tag-entertainment","tag-jane-fonda","tag-peter-jackson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=639234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/639235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=639234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=639234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=639234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}