She founded Hassala Productions to assist upcoming filmmakers to help ensure their independence. She graduated from the Cairo Film Institute with honors in 1999. Lotfy started her career as an assistant director in commercials, but then moved on to her true passion, documentaries. By 2006 she had made three independent award-winning documentaries and seven TV documentaries for Al Jazeera as part of the series Arabs of Latin America. In 2011, she was the recipient of the Katrin Cartlidge Foundation Award. Her feature film directorial debut Coming Forth by Day was supported by SANAD and was first shown at ADFF 2012 where it won the FIPRESCI Prize for Best Film and Best Director in the Arab World category.