Their most acclaimed collaboration, The Tracker (2002), resulted in an APRA-AGSC Screen Music Award for "Far Away Home" as Best Original Song Composed for a Feature Film, Telemovie, TV Series or Mini-Series (shared with de Heer) in 2002.
There he met Dutch-born writer, director and producer Rolf de Heer, for whom he composed screen music on ten feature films.
[5][6] Fellow composer and musicologist Cat Hope analysed Tardif and de Heer's works including The Tracker (2002) and Alexandra's Project (2003).
[4] She observed, "Tardif's minimal electronic score in Alexandra's Project implies the undercurrent of invisible electro-magnetic signals in an urban landscape, making an ordinary street seem like a harbinger of impending doom.
"[4] Their "most meaningful collaboration" was on The Tracker where songs were delivered by Indigenous artist Archie Roach, which "not only adds an extra layer of narrative to the film, but also personalises the de Heer/Tardif working relationship and gives it a new voice.