Peter Weir to Receive Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at 81st Venice Film Festival

Peter Weir will receive the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 81st Venice International Film Festival, which runs August 28 – September 7, 2024.

The announcement came on Thursday from the board of la Biennale di Venezia and the festival’s director, Alberto Barbera. As previously announced, Isabelle Huppert will preside over this year’s jury.

Weir, the Australian director and screenwriter best known for “Gallipoli,” “Witness,” “The Mosquito Coast,” “Dead Poets Society” and “The Truman Show,” began his career with 1974’s “The Cars That Ate Paris.” He soon became an important figure in the Australian New Wave cinema of the 1970s, directing such movies as “Picnic at Hanging Rock” and “The Last Wave.”