George Miller is more than Mad Max vision

Director George Miller, the next president of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival, is known for his violent, high-speed Mad Max road films but the ex-doctor is also celebrated as part of the renaissance of Australian cinema.

Post-apocalyptic visions aside, the 70-year-old can also boast a softer oeuvre, bringing to the screen titles such as Happy Feet, Babe and Lorenzo's Oil.

Miller, the first Australian to chair Cannes, unleashed the first Mad Max starring a young Mel Gibson in 1979 and has said the cult feature was influenced by his childhood in car-obsessed rural Queensland.