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
Up in the Air (2009 film) in order to maintain a streak of debuting his films at TIFF. During October and November 2009, "Up in the Air" screened at festivals including the Aspen Filmfest, the Woodstock Film Festival, the Hamptons International Film Festival, the Mill Valley Film Festival, the Austin Film Festival, the London Film Festival, the St. Louis International Film Festival, the Starz Denver Film Festival, and the Stockholm International Film Festival. It was the only American film to compete for the Golden Marc'Aurelio Audience Award for Best Film at the International Rome Film Festival. On November 6, "The New York Times" film critic Janet