Peter Jackson was reunited with Elijah Wood at the Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday as the star of his Lord Of The Rings trilogy presented him with the Honorary Palme d’Or at the opening ceremony of the 79th edition on Tuesday.

“I’ve still got to work out why I am getting a Palme d’Or, I am not a Palme d’Or type of guy,” said Jackson as he received

Wood recalled had he been just 10 years old the first time he met Jackson, when the director flew to L.A. with partner, screenwriter and producer Fran Walsh to scout for the young actor who would play Frodo Baggins.

“A little later, when I was told I was going to be in the film, I sat down on the floor and realized that in my life, there was a before and an after, and I’m not the only one, whose life Peter Jackson changed.”

The ceremony at the Palais preceded the festival’s opening-night film, Pierre Salvadori’s period romantic comedy The Electric Kiss, starring Pio Marmaï, Anaïs Demoustier, Vimala Pons and Gilles Lellouche.

Stars hitting the red carpet include Joan Collins, Jane Fonda, Diego Luna, James Franco, Alia Bhatt, Elijah Wood and Tyrese Gibson.

Earlier in the ceremony, jury president writer-director Park Chan-Wook and his jury members Demi Moore, Chloé Zhao, Stellan Skarsgård, Ruth Negga, Belgian director and screenwriter Laura Wandel, Chilean director and screenwriter Diego Céspedes, Ivorian American actor Isaach De Bankolé and Scottish screenwriter Paul Laverty also took to the stage.

Twenty-two films are in the running for the Cannes Palme d’Or this year with the competition screenings kicking off on Wednesday with Koji Fukada’s Nagi Notes and Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet A Woman’s Life.