Samuel Maoz Samuel Maoz Samuel Maoz (Hebrew: שמואל מעוז; born c. 1962) is an Israeli film director. His 2009 film, "Lebanon" won the Golden Lion at the 66th Venice International Film Festival. He also won the award for Best Screenplay for Lebanon at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards in 2010. Shmuel (Shmuel) Maoz was born in Tel Aviv. At the age of 20, he was a gunner in one of the first Israeli tanks to enter Lebanon in the 1982 Lebanon War. After the war, he trained as a cameraman at the Beit Zvi theater school, and did art direction in film
The Wrestler (2008 film) March 2009, Javad Shamaqdari, cultural adviser to the-then Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, demanded an apology from a delegation of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences actors and producers visiting Iran for what he characterized as negative and unfair portrayals of the Islamic republic in "The Wrestler" and other Hollywood films. The film won the Golden Lion at the 65th Venice International Film Festival, and was nominated for two Academy Awards. It was nominated for three Golden Globe Awards, winning two. The Wrestler (2008 film) The Wrestler is a 2008 American sports drama film produced and directed by Darren Aronofsky,