Peter Weir AM (b. 1944) is a film director. Educated at Scots College and the University of Sydney, he worked as a stage hand at Channel 7 and made documentaries for the Commonwealth Film Unit before directing The Cars That Ate Paris in 1974. Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) The Last Wave (1977) and Gallipoli (1981) are usually judged amongst the most distinguished of all Australian films. Weir's films, most critically acclaimed and all commercially successful, include The Year of Living Dangerously (1983), Witness (1985), The Mosquito Coast (1986), Dead Poets Society (1989), Green Card (1990), Fearless (1992) and The Truman Show (1997), for which he won Best Director at the British Academy of Film and Television awards in 1999. Weir has been nominated for four Academy Awards: Best Director for Witness; Best Director for Dead Poets Society; Best Screenplay for Green Card; and Best Director for The Truman Show.
