Darine Hotait is a writer and film director. She is the founder of Cinephilia Productions– an incubator with a mission to champion the development of storytellers and filmmakers from the Middle East and Africa. Darine's films can be seen on SundanceTV, AMC Networks, BBC Channel, ShortsTV, IndieFlix, HBO, and at more than a hundred international film festivals. She is the recipient of the New York State Council on the Arts Artist Award and the New York Foundation for the Arts Literary Fellowship. Darine works as an advisor and consultant to several prestigious institutions such as NYFA, FFFMed, and Sundance.