American cinema veteran Jane Fonda and Chinese star Gong Li opened the 79th Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday in front of a celebrity-studded audience on the French Riviera.
Fonda hailed cinema's role as "an act of resistance" at the end of a ceremony that also saw The Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson receive an honorary Palme d'Or award for his career.
"I believe in the power of voices, voices on the screen, voices off the screen, and definitely voices on the street, especially now," said Fonda, a vocal critic of US President Donald Trump and long-standing campaigner, to loud applause.
"I believe that cinema has always been an act of resistance because we tell the stories... stories that bring empathy to the marginalised, stories that allow us to feel across difference, stories that let us see that there is an alternative future that is possible," she said.
"So let's celebrate audacity, freedom, and the fierce act of creation."
Jackson was presented with his award by American actor Elijah Wood, who recounted how his life had "been divided into before and after" the moment he was cast as the hero Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings trilogy aged just 18.
Jackson, 64, was typically self-deprecating as he spoke on stage, saying it was a "stunning surprise, miraculous".
"I am not a Palme d'Or sort of guy," he continued.
"I have been trying to work out why I won", only to realise "this morning that this is the Cannes Film Festival's way of apologising for not giving Bad Taste (1987 comedy horror) the Palme d'Or," the New Zealander said, referring to the first film he made.
Source: AFP
