Shimon Dotan

Shimon Dotan is an award-winning filmmaker with fourteen feature films to his credit. Born in Romania in 1949, he immigrated to Israel with his family in 1959. After serving for five years in the IDF as a Navy Seal, Dotan went on to earn his BFA in Film and Philosophy from Tel Aviv University. Dotan is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship Award (2012), and the recipient of a Cullman Fellowship Award for scholars and writers at the New York Public Library (2012/13). Dotan films have been the recipients of the Special Jury Prize at Sundance (Hot House) Silver Bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival (The Smile of the Lamb), numerous Israeli Academy Awards, including Best Film and Best Director (Repeat Dive; The Smile of the Lamb), and Best Film Award at the Newport Beach Film Festival (You Can Thank Me Later). Dotan has taught filmmaking and film studies at Tel Aviv University in Israel, Concordia University in Montreal and is presently teaching Political Cinema at New York University and Film Directing at the New School University. Dotan's most recent film, The Settlers, premiered at Sundance and is scheduled to be released in the fall of 2016.