Director Peter Weir to get big honour at Venice Film Festival

Director Peter Weir, known for movies like Dead Poets Society, will be honoured with a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival.

The Aussie director is also known for directing and penning the scripts for The Truman Show and Master & Commander.

“With a total of only thirteen movies directed over the course of forty years, Peter Weir has secured a place in the firmament of the great directors of modern cinema,” Venice artistic director Alberto Barbera said in a statement.

Barbera added that Weir made a name for himself at the end of the 1970s as the leading figure behind the rebirth of Australian cinema thanks to two movies: The Cars That Ate Paris (1974) and cult classic Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975).

The international success of his following two films, Gallipoli and The Year of Living Dangerously then “opened Hollywood’s doors.”

Barbera also praised the director’s body of work given Weir’s ability to “combine reflections on personal themes and a need to reach as vast an audience as possible.”

The Venice Film Festival will be running from August 28th to September 7th.