Cannes Kicks Off With Peter Jackson Tribute, Jane Fonda and James Franco Returning From Cancellation

The 79th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, which launched on Tuesday night, is missing big studios movies and Hollywood stars. But at least it had a visitor from Middle Earth. Peter Jackson, the director of the “Lord of the Rings,” touched down in the South of France to accept an honorary Palme d’Or ahead of the opening night movie, “The Electric Kiss,” a French romantic comedy set in the 1920s.

On a sunny and windy afternoon, Jackson walked the carpet alongside a smattering of celebrities that made their way to Cannes (from Diego Luna to “Emily in Paris” star Lucas Bravo) and a jury that includes Demi Moore, Chloé Zhao, Stellan Skarsgård, and Park Chan-wook, who serves as its president. James Franco, whose career was derailed by allegations of sexually inappropriate behavior, was in attendance alongside Jordan Firstman, the “I Love LA” star, whose feature, “Club Kid,” is playing at the festival. The flashing cameras from the wall of photographers remained dark for long stretches of the opening ceremony.

Jane Fonda brought some much-needed Hollywood glamour in a shimmering black dress and bejeweled necklace that looked like the Heart of the Ocean from “Titanic,” while Luna huddled with his “Y tu mamá también” director Alfonso Cuarón in the lobby before the event started. Jackson, flanked by “LOrd of the Rings” star Elijah Wood, flashed a thumbs up to the paparazzi.

This year also marks Thierry Fremaux’s 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’s ultimate global stage.

But the chatter around the Croisette feel unusually charged this year for good reasons. Hollywood is in flux, studios are pulling back from splurging at festivals, AI looms over creative jobs, wars are raging in different corners of the world, and fears over hantavirus are mounting. Perhaps it was the economic uncertainty, but this year’s lineup of films lacks major blockbusters, in marked contrast to previous editions of Cannes where Tom Cruise premiered sequels to “Mission: Impossible” and “Top Gun” and Harrison Ford unveiled “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.”

There had been hopes that Christopher Nolan or Steven Spielberg might bring their latest films, “The Odyssey” and “Disclosure Day,” to the festival, but they opted not to touch down on the Croisette. That’s left Cannes leaning on a lineup of international auteurs like Pedro Almodóvar (“Bitter Christmas”), Paweł Pawlikowski (“Fatherland”) and Cristian Mungiu (“Fjord”) to fill the void.

(Updating live)