Dead Poets Society director Peter Weir receives lifetime achievement award at Sydney film festival

Australian film-maker behind Picnic at Hanging Rock and Gallipoli celebrated for defining country’s culture and ‘global influence on craft, form and storytelling’ Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Peter Weir, the director of Dead Poets Society, The Truman Show, Picnic at Hanging Rock and Gallipoli, was presented with the inaugural lifetime achievement award from the Australian Film Television and Radio School on Wednesday night. At an event hosted by Sydney film festival, the AFTRS council chair, Rachel Perkins, called the now-retired 81-year-old director and screenwriter “the greatest film-maker this country has produced”. Perkins, who founded and co-directed the film production company Blackfella Films from 1992 until 2022, said: “As Aboriginal people, we felt seen in your films.” Weir was able to “define what we call Australian culture”, Perkins said of the themes of mateship and anti-authoritarianism in 1981’s Gallipoli. It was a unanimous decision to present AFTRS’ first lifetime achievement award to Weir for his “global influence on craft, form and storytelling”. In his 43-year career, Weir made