AFP-BNS

Hollywood star John Travolta received a surprise lifetime achievement award at the Cannes Film Festival on Friday.

The honor was presented during the premiere of the first film he has directed.

The actor, who became an icon overnight thanks to his role in Saturday Night Fever, was visibly emotional as he accepted an honorary Palme d’Or before the screening of Propeller One-Way Night Coach, a film based on a book about his first experience on an airplane.

“I just can’t believe it. This is truly more than an Oscar,” he said while accepting the tribute.

This year, the festival has shown special affection for Hollywood legends despite the absence of major studios: honorary Palme d’Or awards were also presented to Barbra Streisand and Peter Jackson, while a gala screening honored Vin Dieseland the stars of the The Fast and the Furious franchise for its 25th anniversary.

Travolta, who has never won an Oscar, revived his career with the cult role of hitman Vincent Vega in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction, which won the festival’s top prize, the Palme d’Or, in 1994.

Many critics called it the best performance of his career, one that has already become part of cinema history.

“My favorite films throughout my life have always been Palme d’Or winners,” Travolta said.

Behind the Camera

Cannes kept the award secret until the actor, dressed in a black suit and white beret, stepped onto the stage during the premiere.

The 72-year-old said he was deeply surprised that his directorial debut — featuring his daughter Ella Bleu Travolta as a flight attendant — had been accepted into the world’s most prestigious film festival.

“When Cannes director Thierry Frémaux told me in November that ‘this will be the first film accepted so early,’ I cried like a baby,” he said.

“I didn’t expect my film to be accepted,” he added.

Propeller One-Way Night Coach is a one-hour self-financed autobiographical story about eight-year-old John flying with his actress mother from New York to Los Angeles in 1962.

“This is the blueprint of my life,” said the actor, a lifelong aviation enthusiast who also narrates the story.

“What you will see in the film is entirely my perspective on what I saw people going through. Everyone who was in the film is sitting in the audience — my family,” he added.

Born in New Jersey to an Irish mother and an Italian-American father who owned a tire shop, Travolta dropped out of school at 16 to pursue acting and dancing.

Two years later, he landed his first major role in the Broadway musical Grease.

In 1978, he received an Oscar nomination for playing disco dance champion Tony Manero in the low-budget hit Saturday Night Fever, while his role in the film adaptation of Grease launched him into Hollywood stardom that same year.

Travolta said that Apple acquired the rights to Propeller One-Way Night Coach.

Asked whether he plans to direct again, he said that throughout his acting career he had observed many different directors.

“I truly believe I can navigate all of that and anything I choose to do, but I also feel I need to be passionate about the material in order to do again what I did here,” he said.