Samuel Maoz (

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

: שמואל מעוז; born c. 1962) is an Israeli film director. His 2009 film, ''

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

'' won the

Golden Lion The Golden Lion () is the highest prize given to a film at the Venice Film Festival. The prize was introduced in 1949 by the organizing committee and is regarded as one of the film industry's most prestigious and distinguished prizes. In 1970, a ...

at the

66th Venice International Film Festival The 66th annual Venice International Film Festival, was held from 2 to 12 September 2009, at Venice Lido in Italy. Taiwanese filmmaker Ang Lee was the jury president for the main competition. Italian actress Maria Grazia Cucinotta was the Hos ...

. He also won the award for Best Screenplay for

at the

Asia Pacific Screen Awards The Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA) is an international cultural initiative overseen by the Asia Pacific Screen Academy and headquartered in Australia, sometimes called "Asia-Pacific Oscars". In order to realise UNESCO's goals of promoting a ...

in 2010.

Biography

Shmuel (Shmuel) Maoz was born in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

. At the age of 20, he was a gunner in one of the first Israeli tanks to enter

in the

1982 Lebanon War The 1982 Lebanon War, also called the Second Israeli invasion of Lebanon, began on 6 June 1982, when Israel invaded southern Lebanon. The invasion followed a series of attacks and counter-attacks between the Palestine Liberation Organization ...

.. After the war, he trained as a cameraman at the Beit Zvi theater school, and did

art direction Art director is a title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, live-action and animated film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to super ...

in film and television productions.

Film career

As a director, Maoz was associated with the production of documentary films, directing the

Arte Arte (, , ; ' ('), sometimes stylised in lowercase or uppercase in its logo) is a European Union, European public service Television channel, channel dedicated to culture. It is made up of three separate companies: the Strasbourg-based Europea ...

production ''Total Eclipse'' (2000) with Evgenia Dodina. In 2007, Maoz began working on ''Lebanon'', his first feature film. The script, based on Maoz's personal experiences, describes the traumatic experiences of a four-man Israeli tank crew in a Lebanese village early in the war. At the end of July 2009, Maoz received an invitation to the competition of the 66th Venice Film Festival, where he won the Golden Lion after having had been rejected at the

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

and the

Cannes Cannes (, ; , ; ) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a communes of France, commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions Internatio ...

film festivals. Lebanon was praised as one of the most compelling competition entries. That same year the film was nominated for the ''Ophir'', Israel's national film awards, in ten categories. His next film, ''

Foxtrot The foxtrot is a smooth, progressive dance characterized by long, continuous flowing movements across the dance floor. It is danced to big band (usually vocal) music. The dance is similar in its look to waltz, although the rhythm is in a time ...

'' (2017), won the

Grand Jury Prize A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually annually and in a single city or region. Some film festivals show films outdoors or online. Films may be of recent date and depe ...

at the Venice Film Festival.

Filmography

*''Total Eclipse'' (2000) * ''Lebanon'' (2009) *''

'' (2017)

References

External links

*
IONCINEMA.com interview with Samuel Maoz for Lebanon
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maoz, Samuel 1960s births Date of birth missing (living people) Israeli film directors Israeli Jews Israeli people of Turkish-Jewish descent Israeli people of Polish-Jewish descent European Film Awards winners (people) Ophir Award winners Directors of Golden Lion winners Beit Zvi School for the Performing Arts alumni Living people