“I dedicate this award to the thousands of people all over the world who, like me, come back from war safe and sound,” said Israeli war veteran and (first-time) filmmaker Samuel Maoz (above, lower photo) upon receiving the Golden Lion for his graphically violent war drama Lebanon at the 2009 Venice Film Festival. “Apparently they are fine, they work, get married, have children. But inside the memory will remain stabbed in their soul.” (On his notes for the film, Maoz writes: “On June 6, 1982, at 6:15 a.m., I killed a man for the first time in my life.”)