The Cannes Film Festival will honour filmmaker Peter Jackson with an honorary Palme d’Or at the upcoming edition of the prestigious French festival.
Peter Jackson to be awarded honorary Palme d’Or
Festival organisers announced Jackson as a recipient Thursday for what they hailed as “a body of work that blends Hollywood blockbusters and films d’auteur with extraordinary artistic vision and technological audacity.”
In a statement, the Lord of the Rings director called the honour “one of the greatest privileges of my career.” Jackson recalled that he first came to Cannes in 1988 to sell his first movie, Bad Taste. In 2002, he returned to preview The Fellowship of the Ring.
“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,” Jackson said.
Last year, Cannes gave honorary Palme d’Or prizes to Robert De Niro and Denzel Washington. This year’s edition runs May 12-23.
All about Peter Jackson’s career
Peter Jackson, best known for the Lord of the Rings trilogy, is one of the most successful and acclaimed filmmakers of the 21st century. His films have broken box-office records and won awards. The New Zealand-born filmmaker began his journey in films in the 1980s with Bad Taste, a Kiwi fashion splatter comedy which took years to make. The film was eventually released in 1987. He found mainstream success in 1994 with the acclaimed film Heavenly Creatures, followed by the mockumentary Forgotten Silver (1995).
The success of these films brought him to Hollywood with The Frighteners, his first big-budget Hollywood film. In 1997, he won the rights to adapt Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings for the big screen. The trilogy, which released from 2001-03, earned close to $3 billion and won 17 Oscars. Jackson has since directed King Kong and The Hobbit films, prequels to LOTR.
