Graduated from the Film Academy in 2009, he developed a distinctive style of filmmaker resulting in internationally awarded films such as Time within Time (2009), Via Dolorosa (2013) and Face to Face (2014).

Besides documentaries, video-clips and experimental films, Menno Otten directed several video-installations, mainly consisting ofFound Footage material. These works have been commissioned by companies like Samsung (2012), Sikkens (2010), Philips (2010), The Dutch Royal Concert Hall (2012), the Eye Film Museum (2012) and more recent the Maritiem Museum in Rotterdam (2020).

His video-art work Girl Reading Letter at an Open Window, in which Menno Otten explores the possibilities of moving light within the work of Johannes Vermeer, was exhibited at the Museum Prinsenhof in Delft and at the Pushkin Museum of Arts in Moscow and is part of several privat collections.

For his video-installation Moving Mesdag, Menno Otten teamed up with Samsung and ConspiracySinc to bring to life the famous Dutch masterpiece Panorama Mesdag. This ambitious video-installation was completed in 2016 and was shown on fourteen 85" inch curved screens and displayed in front of the famous Rijksmuseum among other key locations in the Netherlands. Moving Mesdag attracted more then 65.000 visitors in 3 weeks.

Summer 2017, Menno Otten brought the multi-media installation "City Faces" to the Triumph Gallery in Moscow. Besides video-installations, Menno Otten showed a collection of more then thirty portraits he shot between 2010 and 2015 at one and the same tramstop in Amsterdam.

As an editor Menno Otten worked on several documentaries and video-installations. Editing work include Submarine Channel's "Unspeak", Peter Delpeut's "One hand Clapping" (Winner DDG Award) and "Dedicated to Dance", Jaap van Heusden's "A.sy.lum" (Nominated for a Gouden Kalf), Masha Osipova's "Sanatorium" (nominated at CameraImage Festival) and more recent Misja Pekel's feature documentary: "Maalstroom".

In 2019 Menno created and directed the television series: HOOFDZAKEN (Talking Heads) for Dutch Broadcaster VPRO. In 2020 the second and third season of Hoofdzaken (Talking Heads) aired on national television and a total of 50 episodes where made since then. Winner of the Prix de Jeunesse "Hearts and Jury" prize, nominated for the Japan Prize (2020 and 2021), nominated for a Rose D'or (2021) and nominated twice for Cinekid (Amsterdam). The rights to Hoofdzaken (Talking Heads) are sold to Beta Film Europe.

Since 2010 Menno Otten is teaching Directing Documentary, Film History and Film Theory at the Netherlands Film Academy in Amsterdam.