Darine Hotait
Darine Hotait is a writer and film director. Her work explores the politics of identity, Arab & African diaspora, social stigmas, and science fiction while employing visual components of magical realism. Her work is deeply influenced by her lucid dreaming practice.
Named on Disney’s Launchpad 2022 list of directors on the rise, Darine has written and directed a dozen award-winning narrative films that can be seen on Sundance Channel, The New Yorker, AMC Networks, BBC, and at numerous international film festivals.
Her latest film Tallahasse premiered at the 10th Blackstar Film Festival. It was nominated for Best Narrative Short at the 22nd Woodstock Film Festival and received the Audience Award at Mizna Film Festival. Tallahassee was released exclusively on The New Yorker in January 2022.
She is the recipient of the New York Council on the Arts Artist Award (2020), the New York Foundation for the Arts Immigrant Artist Fellowship (2018), the Jerome Hill Finalist Award (2021), the 40 under 40 Arab America Foundation Award (2021). Her work has received the support of The Sundance Institute, The Independent Film Project, Maison Des Scénaristes, the Jerome Foundation, The Royal Film Commission, the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture, and the Ghetto Film Roster.
Darine is a published science fiction short story writer and playwright. Her literary work appeared in The Seventh Wave, Rusted Radishes, The Siren Literary Journal, Blindspot, Halcyon Berlin, Voix, and the Baryshnikov Arts Center Journal.
In 2010, Hotait founded Cinephilia Productions, a film production company and incubator championing the next generation of Arab and African filmmakers and storytellers. Darine holds an MFA in screenwriting and film directing from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. She resides in New York City.
