Director: Peter Weir

Peter Weir came out of the Australian New Wave with Picnic at Hanging Rock and The Last Wave, both films about rational people encountering something the rational frame cannot hold. Picnic never explains its disappearance, which was the point and infuriated some audiences.

His American work kept the preoccupation. Witness, Dead Poets Society, The Truman Show and Master and Commander all feature someone inside a closed system who begins to see its edges. The Truman Show anticipated reality television by a year and remains the sharpest film about it.

He was nominated for Best Director six times without winning and has not made a feature since 2010. His filmography is small and contains remarkably few weak entries.