Habib Azar

Habib Azar (born October 19, 1979 in Pennsylvania, United States) is an American film, theater and television director.

Film

Azar's first feature film Armless was an official selection of the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, and went on to screen and win awards in festivals around the world. Armless is an off-kilter comedy about a man who suffers from body integrity identity disorder.

In 2013 Azar completed photography on his second feature film Saint Janet starring Kelly Bishop.

Stage

Azar's stage work focuses on world premiere and rarely performed contemporary operas. He directed the American stage premiere of Georg Friedrich Haas' ATTHIS in a well received production that had the heroine bound in duct tape. In the climactic scene she stripped naked by violently ripping the duct tape from her body in what the New York Times said 'must be one of the most searingly painful and revealing operatic performances of recent times.'

His other productions include the world premiere of Lewis Nielson's USW with Opera Cabal of Chicago and the world premiere of Du Yun's Angel's Bone with the International Contemporary Ensemble at the Mann Center in Philadelphia.

Azar's 2007 production of Luigi Nono's rarely performed A Floresta e Jovem e Cheja de Vida with the International Contemporary Ensemble toured the US and Mexico and was the subject of an extended analysis in The Drama Review.

Azar has directed numerous plays including Gorilla Man at PS122.

Television

In 2013 Azar directed all 8 episodes of the groundbreaking series The All Star Orchestra for PBS. The program gathered principal musicians from major American orchestras to film concert works especially for television. Other live multi-camera arts specials directed by Azar include Yo-Yo Ma for Live from Lincoln Center, The New York Philharmonic, Kronos Quartet, Lang Lang, Mariinsky Orchestra, Merce Cunningham Dance Company, the National Symphony Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

Azar has worked extensively in soap operas, having directed multiple episodes of As the World Turns, The Young and the Restless, All My Children, and One Life to Live.

He has won 5 Emmy Awards for his work in TV.

All My Children

• Director (2013)

As the World Turns

• Occasional Director (2002–2004)
• Director (2005–2010)

One Life to Live

• Director (2013)

The Young and the Restless

• Occasional Director (May 20, 2010–Present)

Armless

• Feature Film (2010), official selection of the 2010 Sundance Film Festival 'Next' Category

Daytime Emmy Award

• Win, 2007, Directing, As the World Turns
• Nominated, 2012, Directing, The Young and the Restless
• Win, 2014, Directing, One Life to Live

New York Emmy Award

• Win, 2014, Directing, The All Star Orchestra
• Win, 2015, Directing, The All Star Orchestra