Guy Nattiv

Guy Nattiv (; born May 24, 1973) is an Israeli film director, screenwriter and producer who lives and works in the United States. His film ''Skin'' won an Oscar for best short film at the 91st Academy Awards. As of March 2025, Nattiv, Moshe Mizrahi, Yuval Abraham, and Rachel Szor were the only Israeli directors to have won an Academy award.

Early life and education

Guy Nattiv was born on May 24, 1973. His grandparents were Holocaust survivors.

He graduated in 2012 from Camera Obscura film school in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Career

Early career

Nattiv worked in advertising early in his career. He served as head copywriter and then chief creative director for the advertising agency Publicis Groupe for seven years.

Filmmaking

He began his career as a film director and screenwriter in 2002 directing his graduate short film at Camera Obscura film school in Tel-Aviv, ''The Flood'', which won dozens of international film festivals around the world including the Crystal Bear Award at the Berlin International Film Festival for best short film. In 2003, he began collaborating with director Erez Tadmor. Together they directed the short film ''Strangers'', starring Guy Loell and Sami Samir, about a Jew and an Arab who meet on a train and encounter a group of Neo Nazi skinheads. The film won the 2003 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award for Best Short Film, and the Wolgin Award at the Jerusalem Film Festival in 2003. ''Strangers'' also won more than 30 international film festivals and was shortlisted short for the Oscars.

Nattiv and Tadmor's second short film, ''Offside'', starring Liron Levo and Ido Musari, won the short film award at the 2006 Manhattan Film Festival. In 2008 Nattiv & Tadmor developed their short film ''Strangers'' into a feature of the same name. The film is led by Liron Levo and Lubna Azabal. ''Strangers'' has participated in dozens of international film festivals, including the official competition at the 2008 Sundance Film Festivals and the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival. ''Strangers'' has been sold and distributed in more than 28 countries around the world. In addition, actress Lubna Azabel won the most Promising Actress Award at the 2008 Jerusalem Film Festival.

In 2010, Nattiv wrote and directed his second feature ''Mabul'' aka ''The Flood'' which was nominated for 4 Israeli Ophir Awards. The film stars Ronit Alkabetz, Yoav Rotman, Tzahi Grad and Michael Moshonov, who also won the Ophir Award for Best Supporting Actor. ''Mabul'' won a Special Mention at the 2011 Berlin film Festival (Generation category), the Audience Award and Special Artistic Achievement in the 2011 Thessaloniki Film Festival and was Nominated at the 2011 Asia Pacific Screen Awards for Best Children's Feature Film.

His third feature film ''Magic Men'' (In collaboration with Erez Tadmor) is a journey of a father and son in northern Greece, following a Greek magician who has disappeared. The film stars Kerem Khuri and Zohar Strauss, the script was written in collaboration with Sharon Maimon. Erez and Guy co-directed the film, produced by Shemi Sheinfeld and Amitan Menelson with the investment of the Rabinowitz Foundation and Channel 10. The film received four nominations at the Ophir Israeli Awards, including Best Picture, Supporting Actor and original score and won Best Actor and the Israeli Critics circle. The film hit theaters in March 2014.

Nattiv directed and wrote (in collaboration with Erez Tadmor) a 12-minute short film called ''Dear God'' starring Lior Ashkenazi and Raymond Amsalem, a poetic drama about the Western Wall guard, who follows a mysterious woman who comes to the Western Wall every day and at the end of each day, the guard reads the notes she writes and buries them in the Western Wall. He decides to fulfill her secret wishes. The film was funded by the Film and Television "Makor Fund" and was nominated for an Ophir Israeli Award in the Best Short Film category. ''Dear God'' is the last collaboration of Nattiv and Tadmor. Tadmor and Nattiv pointed out that ''Dear God'' is actually part of a trilogy where it joins ''Offside'' and ''Strangers'' as the last of the trilogy of short films without dialogue that they directed together. It shows how "People connect in absurd and extreme situations without words, just humanity".

In 2018, Nattiv made his first American short ''Skin''. He co-wrote the script with Sharon Maimon, based on Maimon's original idea. ''Skin'' was co-produced with Nattiv's wife and partner Jaime Ray Newman and stars Danielle McDonald, as well as Lonnie Chavis, Jonathan Tucker, Ashley Thomas and Jackson Robert Scott. ''Skin'' won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film at the 91st Academy Awards. The short is a 20-minute movie, that focuses on a hate crime and its impact on a skinhead and two young children, one black and one white. The film participated in more than 400 film festivals and won 31 awards including Saint Petersburg International Film Festival, Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, HollyShorts Film Festival and more.

In 2018, Nattiv's feature film ''Skin'' was released which he made with his wife Newman. It stars Vera Farmiga, Jamie Bell, Danielle Macdonald, Bill Camp, Louisa Krause, Mike Colter and Mary Stuart Masterson. Israeli producer Oren Moverman along with Trudie Styler, Sting's wife, signed on as producers of the movie. ''Skin'', the feature was released on June 27 through DirecTV, before theaters on July 26 through A24. The film centers on the character Bryon Widner, a tattoo-covered skinhead, who decides to turn his back on the hate with which he was raised, going through a tremendously painful process to have every bit of offensive ink removed from his skin. This character was played by Jamie Bell. The feature-length version premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, where it won the Fipresci Prize,an award given by the International Federation of Film Critics. It was sold to more than 30 countries around the world, and participated at the Deauville Film Festival. ''The Hollywood Reporter'' called Bell's performance "moving" and "powerful". The feature is based on the life of Bryon Widner a Neo-Nazi skinhead who retired from the violent activity and later even became an FBI informant and was one of the prominent spokesmen against the hate groups. Widner was a vigorous and violent neo-Nazi activist, whose skin was full of hateful tattoos.

Nattiv's next film ''Harmonia'', a feature film based on the life of his grandmother, a Holocaust survivor, who ended up as part of a women's cult in Virginia produced by Sight Unseen. The film is yet to be released as of June 2021. Nattiv is also attached to direct '' Golda'' starring Helen Mirren. Michael Kuhn and Nicholas Martin are the producer of the film. Martin also wrote the screenplay. The plot of ''Golda'' focuses on the decisions made by Meir during the Yom Kippur War, when the combined forces of Egypt, Syria and Jordan launched a surprise attack on Israel in 1973.

As in January 2020, Nattiv and Jaime Ray Newman together with Keshet Studios have been known developing ''A Stuntwoman'', a limited series based on the book of the same name by Julie Ann Johnson and ''Deadline''s David Robb. The series is about Johnson, a pioneer for women stunt performers and one of Hollywood's first whistle-blowers. It tells the story based on the real life incidents about Johnson who in the '70s became one of the first female stunt coordinators in Hollywood. Johnson battled Hollywood's 'glass ceiling'; she took on the stunt community's 'cocaine cowboys' and she fought against one of the most formidable film and television personalities of her time, Aaron Spelling.

In 2021, Nattiv and Newman created ''Life Unexpected'', a short documentary shot over 10 years in intimate, raw home footage that tells the story of the unforgiving roller coaster of bringing life into this world. The short is a co-production between New Native Pictures, Katsina communication and Channel HOT. It premiered at the Lighthouse International film festival in June 2021. Ouat Media has the world distribution rights for the documentary.

In 2023 Nattiv teamed up with director Zar Amir Ebrahimi, from a screenplay by Nattiv and Elham Erfani and made the film TATAMI and its Asian premiere at the 36th Tokyo International Film Festival on October 25, 2023. It was also screened in the 19th Zurich Film Festival on October 2, 2023. In February 2024, XYZ Films acquired US distribution rights to the film. It stars Arienne Mandi, Ebrahimi, Jaime Ray Newman, Ash Goldeh and Sina Parvaneh. It had its world premiere at the 80th Venice International Film Festival on September 2, 2023, receiving positive reviews from the critics and audience. The film follows Iranian female judoka Leila (Arienne Mandi) and her coach Maryam (Zar Amir Ebrahimi), who travel to the Judo World Championship, intent on bringing home Iran’s first gold medal. This includes a possible encounter with an Israeli athlete, something that the Mullah regime prohibits. Midway through the competition, Leila and her coach receive repeated threats from the Islamic Republic ordering Leila to fake an injury and drop out of the tournament. With her own and her family’s freedom at stake, Leila faces a difficult choice: feign injury and comply with the Iranian regime as Maryam implores her to do, or defy them both and fight on, for the gold. With Nattiv and Zar Amir Ebrahimi as co-directors, the project marks the first feature film to be co-directed by an Iranian and an Israeli filmmaker. It is produced by Adi Ezroni and Mandy Tagger Brockey, alongside Guy Nattiv and Jaime Ray Newman from New Native Pictures. WestEnd Films acquired international rights in February 2023. Other production companies involved in the project include White Lodge Productions, Maven Pictures, Tale Runners and Sarke Studios.

Nattiv's ''Harmonia'' has cast Naomi Watts, Vicky Krieps, Bella Ramsey, and Odessa Young as Embankment Films, Range Media Partners and CAA Media Finance launch pre-sales ahead of Cannes. Inspired by a real-life events, the film is based on Nattiv’s grandmother and her involvement in an insidious cult.

Nattiv lives and works in the US.

Critical reception

''Variety'' called him "an undeniably gifted filmmaker" and the film ''Skin'' a "stunner". Avner Shavit, a veteran film critic for Israeli news site Walla! told ''The Wrap'' "he'd never seen anything like it".

Recognition and awards

Nattiv's film ''Skin'' won an Oscar for best short film at the 91st Academy Awards. As of May 2021, Nattiv and Moshe Mizrahi were the only Israeli directors who have won an Academy award. According to Gal Uchovsky, Nattiv's Oscar win is "a big deal", because it could open doors for other Israeli filmmakers with dreams of making it big in Hollywood.

Nattiv has been an official member of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences since 2019.

In 2019, he received the IFF Achievement in Film Award at the 33rd Israel Film Festival.

In 2024, Nattiv was inducted as a new member of European Film Academy.

Personal life

In 2012, Nattiv married actress and producer Jaime Ray Newman. In 2015 Nattiv moved to Los Angeles, California. The couple have two daughters together. They started their production company in 2021 named New Native Pictures.

Filmography

See also

* List of Israeli Academy Award winners and nominees

References

External links

*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nattiv, Guy
1973 births
Living people
Film people from Tel Aviv
Israeli film directors
Israeli film producers
Israeli male screenwriters
Directors of Live Action Short Film Academy Award winners