Yazmeen Kanji

Yazmeen Kanji is a Hot Docs Accelerator Fellow and a TIFF Next Wave emerging South-Asian, Muslim filmmaker from Ottawa and Toronto, Canada. She works at Charles Officer's company, Canesugar Filmworks, and with Oscar-nominee Sami Khan. Yazmeen is a recent Dean's Scholar graduate of the University of Toronto, where she studied Peace, Conflict and Justice at the Munk School of Global Affairs, Critical Studies in Equity and Solidarity and Cinema Studies. Yazmeen is the founder of Films With A Cause, a social enterprise by young people dedicated to advocacy and consulting for underrepresented communities behind and in front of the camera, supported by Ryerson University's Transmedia Zone. Yazmeen directed From Syria To Hope (2019), centering three Syrian newcomer families, which won Best Short Doc at the 2019 Toronto Short Film Fest and was screened at the 2020 Muslim International Film Festival. Her first funded film, With Love From Munera (2020) premiered at the Inside Out Film Festival, screened at TIFF Next Wave 2021 and won the 2021 Breakthroughs Film Festival Audience Choice Award. Yazmeen recently directed Eadie's first music video, L.O.E (Loyalty Over Everything). Through Films With A Cause and her academic background, Yazmeen has spoken at conferences and events about the importance of representing Muslim and South Asian experiences.