WELLINGTON ? Oscar-winning movie director and king of Middle Earth, Peter Jackson has been made a knight in the first New Zealand honors list since the country reinstated the title.

Former prime minister Helen Clark tops the New Year Honors list, just a year after being voted out of office, but receives an award that carries no honorific.

She has been made a member of the Order of New Zealand, the highest accolade available in the country and restricted to 20 living people.

Clark, who in 2000 scrapped titles linked to the British honors system, said she "certainly would not" have accepted a damehood, The Press newspaper reported.

The three-term prime minister from 1999-2008 now heads the United Nations Development Program.

Film-maker Jackson, who won international acclaim after his Lord of the Rings trilogy won a total of 17 Oscars, was made a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit.

In a written statement, Jackson described the honor as an "incredible moment."

"I didn't think anything would surpass the 2004 Academy Awards, but I was wrong," he said.