Peter Greenaway was born in 1942 in Newport, Wales. He was educated at Forest School and at Walthamstow College of Art (London), where he trained as a painter. Since 1965 he worked for eleven years as film editor for the Central Office of Information, where he made a series of documentary and information films for the British governament, while writing and filming his first shorts. His first feature-lenght film was The Falls, in 1980, when he began to attract critical attention. In 1981 he was awarded the prize for best short film at the Melbourne and Sydney film festivals with Act of God., and in the following year released The Draughtsman's Contract, his first film to be internationally acclaimed.
