Australian filmmaker and screenwriter Peter Weir, 79, will receive the Golden Lion for his career at the 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival, which takes place between August 28th and September 7th.
The tribute was proposed by the exhibition’s director, Alberto Barbera, and confirmed by the board of directors of the Venice Biennale this Thursday (9).
“The Venice Film Festival and its Golden Lion are part of the imagination of our profession. Being awarded for a lifetime’s work as a director is a great honor,” said Weir, author of films such as “Dead Poets Society” and “The Show of Truman.”
“With just 13 films made in a 40-year career, Peter Weir secured a place in the firmament of the great directors of modern cinema,” said Barbera, adding that the Australian is capable of “combining reflection on personal themes and the demands of directing to the widest possible audience.”
“It is not difficult to find in his cinema, which is at once audacious, rigorous and spectacular, the constant sensitivity that allows him to address eminently modern themes, such as the fascination with nature, the crisis of adults in consumerist societies, the difficulties of educating young people for life, the temptation of physical and cultural isolation, but also the appeal of adventurous impulses and the instinct of healthy rebellion”, highlighted the director of the Venice Festival.
