John Travolta, star of hits such as Pulp Fiction and Grease, has been surprised with an honorary Palme d'Or prize at the Cannes Film Festival, before the premiere of his directorial debut.

"It's beyond the Oscar, really," said an emotional Travolta, who has been nominated twice for the prestigious award.

His film Propeller One-Way Night Coach is an exploration of a boy's waxing love for aviation and a fateful cross-country flight to Los Angeles during the golden age of flying and is based on a book of the same name that Travolta wrote some three decades ago.

Travolta piloted himself and his daughter Ella Bleu Travolta, who plays one of the flight attendants, to the festival, according to an Instagram post.

Making the film was a labour of love for Travolta, who produced, financed, directed, narrated and wrote it.

"Other people wanted to produce it and direct it, but I thought it was so personal," recalled the 72-year-old.

"Not that another couldn't do it, it's just that I just wanted to be at the end of my chapters in my life to give a reflection of how it started for me," he told the audience.

Travolta has been one of Hollywood's most enduring stars, breaking out in the late 1970s with his disco drama Saturday Night Fever.

After a slump, the actor revived his career at Cannes with Quentin Tarantino's cult classic Pulp Fiction in 1994, going on to cement his Hollywood star status with films including Get Shorty, Face/Off and Hairspray.

"It's been a wonderful life, because I've got the beautiful arts of theatre, and of film and of singing and dancing and acting, and I also get the art of the sky," he said.

The film, which is showing in the Cannes Premiere section of the festival, will be released on Apple TV on May 29.