Amil Shivji

FOUNDER | FILM DIRECTOR

Amil Shivji is filmmaker, educator, and mentor based in his homeland Tanzania. He believes in using images to challenge the powers that be, in particular deconstructing urban facades of development and emphasizing the strength and struggles of marginalized communities. Over the past twelve years, his production house Kijiweni Productions has produced the most celebrated and decorated Tanzanian films while training hundreds of artists. He has an MFA from York University and is a Berlinale Talent Alumni, a founding member of the East African Screen Collective, and a Tejumola Olaniyan Creative Writers-in-Residence Fellow and is participating in the EAVE producer’s workshop 2025. He lectured at the University of Dar es Salaam for seven years, helping establish their Bachelor’s degree program in Film and Television. His award-winning films have played in over 300 screens worldwide. He premiered his fiction feature, Vuta N’Kuvute (Tug of War), a story of love and resistance set in British colonial Zanzibar, at TIFF’21. It won the Oumarou Ganda Prize at FESPACO’21, special Jury prize in Seattle, Golden Tanit and FIPRESCI critics award in Carthage, and is Tanzania’s second ever submission to the Oscars®. He recently produced The Empty Grave, which premiered at Berlinale ’24 and has played in over fifty cinemas in Germany.