On a sunny and windy day, Jackson walked the red carpet with some celebrities, like Diego Luna and Lucas Bravo from "Emily in Paris," and Tyrese Gibson.
The jury included Demi Moore, Chloé Zhao, Ruth Negga, Stellan Skarsgård, and Park Chan-wook. Without many big-name stars, the photographers outside the theater didn’t have much to shoot during the quiet opening ceremony.
The first night had less star power but a controversial moment.
James Franco, whose career faced issues in 2018, was greeted by fans in the lobby between the ceremony and the opening screening. He took selfies and then went outside where Luna greeted him. Luna asked, "How are you, man?" and Franco, wearing sunglasses, nodded in response.
Jane Fonda added some glamour with a black dress and a necklace that looked like the Heart of the Ocean from "Titanic."
Jackson, accompanied by "Lord of the Rings" actor Elijah Wood, gave a thumbs up to the paparazzi. The cast of "The Electric Kiss," led by French actors Pio Marmaï and Anaïs Demoustier, got some applause as they walked into the theater.
Wood presented Jackson with his award, talking about how his "Lord of the Rings" movies, filmed in New Zealand, changed cinema.
"You showed the world something it had never seen before, and nothing was ever the same," Wood said, adding that Jackson helped create a new filmmaking culture far from the world's center.
Jackson accepted the honor and remembered his decision to shoot all of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy at the same time.
"It was a huge gamble," he admitted. Media called it a "folly" and thought it might fail if the first movie didn't do well. But after a great showing of footage from "The Fellowship of the Ring" at Cannes in 2001, people's opinions changed. "It changed the perception of the film," he said.
"The Electric Kiss," directed by Pierre Salvadori, is about a painter who falls in love with a psychic.
The movie got mixed reviews but was well received by the crowd on opening night, getting a 5-minute standing ovation as the credits rolled.
This year is the 25th time Thierry Fremaux has been in charge of Cannes.
During his time, the festival has dealt with streaming, a pandemic, and political changes, but it has kept its status as the top film event in the world.
The atmosphere on the Croisette feels more intense this year.
Hollywood is changing, studios are spending less on festivals, AI is affecting creative jobs, and there are ongoing conflicts and fears over hantavirus. Economic uncertainty might be part of the reason, but this year's lineup doesn't have big blockbusters, unlike previous years when Tom Cruise and Harrison Ford had big premieres.
There were hopes that Christopher Nolan or Steven Spielberg would bring "The Odyssey" or "Disclosure Day" to Cannes, but they didn't come.
Cannes is now relying on international directors like Pedro Almodóvar, Paweł Pawlikowski, and Cristian Mungiu to fill the gap.
The ceremony host, Eye Haïdara, made a political comment, welcoming everyone connected to the event and saying that people all over the world are trying to resist artificial intelligence and stay real.
Jane Fonda then opened the festival, saying, "I believe that cinema has always been an act of resistance because we tell stories.
Stories are what make a civilization. Stories that bring empathy to the marginalized, stories that allow us to feel across differences. Stories that let us see that there is an alternative future that is possible."
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