Peter Weir

Peter Lindsay Weir AM (/wɪər/ WEER; born 21 August 1944) is an Australian retired film director, screenwriter, and producer. He directed films crossing various genres over forty years, such as Homesdale (1971), Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), The Plumber (1979), Gallipoli (1981), The Year of Living Dangerously (1982), Witness (1985), The Mosquito Coast (1986), Dead Poets Society (1989), Fearless (1993), The Truman Show (1998), Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003), and The Way Back (2010). He has received six Academy Award nominations and he has won two AACTA Award for Best Direction and two BAFTA Award for Best Direction. In 2022, he was awarded the Academy Honorary Award for his lifetime career achievement. In 2024, he received an honorary life-time achievement award at the Venice Film Festival (Golden Lion).

Early in his career as a director, Weir was a leading figure in the Australian New Wave cinema movement (1970–1990). Weir made his feature film debut with The Cars That Ate Paris (1974), and continued with the mystery drama Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), the supernatural thriller The Last Wave (1977) and the historical drama Gallipoli (1981). Weir gained tremendous success with the multinational production The Year of Living Dangerously (1982).

After the success of The Year of Living Dangerously, Weir directed a diverse group of American and international films covering most genres—many of them major box office hits—including Academy Award–nominated films such as the thriller Witness (1985), the drama Dead Poets Society (1989), the romantic comedy Green Card (1990), the social science-fiction dramedy The Truman Show (1998) and the epic historical drama Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003). His final feature before his retirement was The Way Back (2010).