Peter Weir AM (b. 1944) is a film director. Educated at Scots College and the University of Sydney, he worked as a stagehand 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 later 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 BAFTA awards in 1999. Weir has been nominated for four Academy Awards: Best Director for Witness, Dead Poets Society and The Truman Show, and Best Screenplay for Green Card.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2001
© Gordon Glenn
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves.
Over the last five years the National Portrait Gallery has developed a collection of portrait photographs that reflects both the strength and diversity of Australian achievement as well as the talents of our photographers.
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