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
Before the Rain (1994 film) critic Roger Ebert described "Before the Rain" as an "extraordinary film. Work like this is what keeps me going, month after month and film after film ... This is a reminder of the nobility that film can attain." The film was nominated for an Academy Award. The film also won the Golden Lion at the 51st Venice International Film Festival, alongside Vive L'Amour by Tsai Ming-liang. It was also nominated for the Grand Prix of the Belgian Syndicate of Cinema Critics. It won 30 other awards, including Independent Spirit, Silver Condor, David di Donatello, Golden Bug, etc. The New York