page_title: Lazar Ristovski
section_title: Biography
hierarchical_section_title: Lazar Ristovski / Biography
caption_attribution_description: English: Actor Lazar Ristovski presenting the film "Train Driver's Diary" (Dnevnik mašinovođe) at the Prague Independent Film Festival in August, 2017.
context_page_description: Lazar "Laza" Ristovski is a Serbian retired actor, director, producer and writer. He has appeared on stage about 4,000 times, and starred in over 40 films, TV series and TV dramas, mostly in lead roles.
context_section_description: He was born on 26 October 1952, in Ravno Selo village, part of Vrbas, SR Serbia, FPR Yugoslavia (modern Serbia), into a family of Yugoslav colonists, his father being born in Macedonia and was from Gugjakovo and his mother in Montenegro. He graduated from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts of the University of Belgrade as an actor.
  In 1999 The White Suit an auteur film by Ristovski (director, writer, lead actor, and producer) was at the Cannes Film Festival in the Critics Week program. The White Suit was the Serbian entry for the 1999 Academy Awards.
  Lazar Ristovski is the sole owner of Zillion Film Company
  In 2006, he made a small appearance in the James Bond film Casino Royale. He played Caruso in the 2004 movie King of Thieves. He starred as Đorđe in the award-winning 2009 film St. George Shoots the Dragon.
  Ristovski has achieved his "Hollywood dream" by acting in the indie movie Along the Roadside.  He most recently played Russian President-elect and former Army General Arkady Fedorov in Pierce Brosnan's movie The November Man which came out in 2014.
  In 2016 he starred in and produced the film Train Driver's Diary which was the Serbian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 89th Academy Awards. The film won three awards at the 2017 Prague Independent Film Festival – the Grand Prix, Best Actor (Lazar Ristovski), and Best Feature Film.
  Ristovski is the organizer of the Ravno Selo Film Festival which was held for the first time in June 2017.
  He is also the author of four books; Belo odelo (The White Suit), Kako sam dobio Oskara (How I Got an Oscar), Jednostavne priče (Simple Stories) and Ulična akademija (Street Academy).
caption: Lazar Ristovski presenting the film Train Driver's Diary at the Prague Independent Film Festival in 2017
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