The Venice Film Festival celebrates Australian director and screenwriter Peter Weir (Dead Poets Society, The Truman Show, Master & Commander) with the honorary Golden Lion at its upcoming 80th edition.
Accepting the award, Weir said: “The Venice Film Festival and its Golden Lion are part of the folklore of our craft. To be recognized as a lifetime achievement award winner as a director is a great honor.”
Weir was born in August 1944 and was one of the key figures in Australian New Wave cinema of the 1970s. He began his career in 1969 when he took a job as a director with the government-funded Commonwealth Film Unit. Weir set up his own business in 1973 and made his first feature film, the comic horror The cars that ate Paris (1974), which he also wrote. He won an international audience with him Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), followed by The final wave (1977), for which he also co-wrote the screenplay. The drama of the First World War Gallipoli (1981), based on a story by Weir and starring Mel Gibson, won eight Australian Film Institute awards and strengthened Weir’s international reputation. His last Australian production, which he co-wrote as well as directed, was The year of dangerous living (1982), a drama set in Indonesia at the time of the fall of President Sukarno and starring Gibson and Linda Hunt.
In 1985 Weir made his first Hollywood film: witness, for which he received his first Oscar nomination for Best Director. The film also received Oscars for Best Original Screenplay and Best Editing. Weir continued to gain recognition with films such as: Society of Dead Poets (1989) and The Truman Show (1998). Both films premiered at the Venice Film Festival. Weir then directed Master and Commander (2003). These three films all received Weir Oscar nominations for Best Director. His other films included The Mosquito Coast (1986), Green card (1990), Fearless (1993) and The way back (2010).
“In his films, Weir combines reflections on personal issues and the need to reach the widest possible audience,” said Venice director Alberto Barbera. “Despite the diversity of the topics he covers, it is not difficult to discover a constant in his daring, rigorous and spectacular film work: a sensitivity that allows him to deal with highly topical topics, such as the fascination with nature and their secrets, the crisis of adults in consumer societies, the difficulties of educating young people about life, the temptation of physical and cultural isolation, but also the lure of adventurous impulses and the instinct to rebel. Celebrating his love of storytelling and innate romance, Weir has strengthened his own role in the Hollywood establishment while simultaneously distancing himself from the American film industry. witness, Mosquito Coast, Society of Dead Poets, Fearless, The Truman ShowAnd Master and Commander are the most important stages of an artistic career that has retained its fundamental integrity right through to the commercial success of the films he made.”
The 2024 Venice Film Festival will take place from August 28th to September 7th.