Biography
Darine Hotait is a writer and film director. Her films explore the politics of identity as well as issues concerning the Arab and African diaspora, often using elements of science fiction and magical realism.
She has written and directed narrative short films that can have been shown on Sundance Channel, The New Yorker, AMC Networks, BBC, Forbes, and at numerous international film festivals. Her most recent film, TALLAHASSEE (2021) premiered at the 10th Blackstar Film Festival and received the Audience Award at Mizna Film Festival.
Hotait is the founder of Cinephilia Productions, a film incubator and production company championing the next generation of Arab and African filmmakers and storytellers. Her sci-fi short stories and plays have appeared in publications such as Rusted Radishes: Beirut Literary and Art Journal, The Seventh Wave, Blind Spot and Angle Mort.
Hotait is the recipient of a New York State Council on the Arts’ Artist Award (2019) and the 40 under 40 Arab America Foundation Award (2021) and was part of the New York Foundation for the Arts’ Immigrant Artist Fellowship and the Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship (2021-2022).
She holds an MFA in Film from the ArtCenter College of Design, California.