Amil Shivji

EARLY LIFE

Amil Shivji was born in 1990 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. His family roots trace back to Zanzibar, an island he frequently visited as a child and which remains a major source of creative inspiration. His father is Issa Shivji, a prominent Tanzanian lawyer and academic who served on the Land Commission in the 1990s addressing Maasai land issues. Before fully committing to film, Shivji worked as a journalist and radio host. He initially planned to study journalism at the University of Cape Town but was accepted into the film programme at York University in Toronto with a prestigious scholarship (one of only four African students admitted at the time). He completed a Master of Fine Arts in film production there. During his studies he discovered African cinema (including the works of Ousmane Sembène and Djibril Diop Mambéty), which became a turning point and solidified his path as a filmmaker.

CAREER

Shivji is the founder of Kijiweni Productions (and associated Kijiweni Cinema), an independent Tanzanian production company dedicated to telling local stories to international standards. His work frequently addresses misrepresentations of Africa, neocolonialism, marginalized communities, land issues, and historical recovery, often drawing on neo-realist and Third Cinema approaches. He began with short films: Who Killed Me (2012), Shoeshine (2013) — which screened at the International Film Festival Rotterdam and won the People’s Choice Award at the Zanzibar International Film Festival — and Samaki Mchangani (2014), which also played at major African festivals including FESPACO. As a producer he worked on the feature Aisha (2015). His feature directorial debut, T-Junction (2017), opened the Zanzibar International Film Festival and won multiple awards. His second feature, Vuta N’Kuvute (Tug of War, 2021), adapted from Adam Shafi’s classic Swahili novel, is a period romance-drama set in late-colonial Zanzibar. It became the first Tanzanian film selected for the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). The film went on to win the Oumarou Ganda Prize for Best Fiction at FESPACO 2021, Best Long Fiction at the Mashariki African Film Festival, a Special Jury Prize at the Seattle International Film Festival, and the Tanit d’or at the Carthage Film Festival (2022). It was also submitted as Tanzania’s entry for the Academy Awards. Shivji has continued developing new projects, including the feature Last Cow (in development as of late 2025), a story set among the Maasai community involving land dispossession and a symbolic last cow. He frequently collaborates with international partners while remaining rooted in Tanzanian production.

Amil Shivji is widely regarded as one of the leading contemporary Tanzanian filmmakers helping place the country’s cinema on the global map. He combines academic teaching with hands-on production, emphasizes community involvement and historical research (particularly around Zanzibar and colonial-era narratives), and advocates for stronger infrastructure and international visibility for Tanzanian and East African film.