Professional Bio:

Wanjiru Kinyanjui is an accomplished filmmaker, scholar, curator, and educator with extensive experience in African cinema, documentary and film production and screenwriting. She currently serves as a Film Lecturer at Multimedia University of Kenya, where she has taught Film and Animation since 2012, having previously lectured at Kenyatta University in the Department of Theatre Arts and Film Technology. She also served as Chairperson of the Department of Film & Broadcast at Multimedia University between 2014 and 2019.

She is the Founding Chairperson of the Kenya International Film Festival Trust and the Founder and Director of the UDADA Film Festival, initiatives that have significantly contributed to the growth of Kenya’s film industry. She has also served as a jury member and festival curator at major African and international film festivals. Her career reflects a strong commitment to African storytelling, creative mentorship, intercultural dialogue, and the advancement of film scholarship and practice in Africa.

In addition to her academic and creative achievements, she possesses extensive practical experience in sound work, camerawork, film editing, production management, archival research, and film proposal writing. She has worked as a screenwriter, director, and producer across documentary and film projects. Her multilingual abilities in English, German, and Kikuyu translation, alongside skills in music performance including piano, guitar, kayamba, and singing, further enrich her interdisciplinary and intercultural approach to storytelling and film education.

Academic Qualification:

1. Master of Arts (English and German Literature), (1988)
2. Graduated as a Screenwriter/Film director, German Academy for Film & Television Berlin (DFFB) (1995)

Professional Qualifications:

1. Research on women’s groups in Kenya, ASA-Carl-Duisberg Gesellschaft scholarship (Germany) (1985)
2. International Baccalaureate (IB), United World College of the Pacific, L.B.Pearson, Victoria BC, Canada (1979)

Membership of Professional Bodies or Associations:

1. Founding Chairperson of the Kenya International Film Festival Trust

Academic Research, Paper Presentations & Publications:

1. Screening of The Battle of the Sacred Tree in Transtopia Cinema Berlin. (2023). Berlin, Germany.
2. Screening of The Battle of the Sacred Tree at the Kenya National Theatre/Maconde Literary Festival. (2023). Nairobi, Kenya.
3. Berlin International Film Festival: Screening of The Battle of the Sacred Tree (feature film, 80 mins) and A Lover and Killer of Colour (short film, 9 mins). (2023). Berlin, Germany.
4. A historical journey through Kenyan film. (2014). In F. Ogunleye (Ed.), African film: Looking back and looking forward. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
5. Keynote address at the Southern African Communications Conference (SACOMM). (2013). Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
6. President of the jury: Short and student films, Festival Panafricain du Cinéma de Ouagadougou (FESPACO). (2013). Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
7. Film presentation at Dret a Salut a Africa Documentary and Film Festival: Africa Is a Woman’s Name. (2012). Barcelona, Spain.
8. Film presentations at Laboratorio Immagine Donna: The Battle of the Sacred Tree; Bahati; Africa Is a Woman’s Name/Njoki Ndung’u. (2011). Florence, Italy.
9. Creating a film audience in Kenya. (2008, paper presentation). Audio-Visual Conference, Pretoria, South Africa.
10. Kenyan videos: A director’s experience. (2007). In Africa Through the Eye of the Video Camera. Academic Publishers, Manzini, Eswatini.
11. Video films in Kenyan indigenous languages. (2007, paper presentation). Video Arts Film Fest, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria.
12. River Road vernacular videos: Research on the booming industry (Ford Foundation Grantee). (2005).
13. Newspaper articles and interviews on River Road vernacular videos. (2005).
14. Friede den Dörfern (Peace to Villages: Change of Perspective in African Cinema). (2000). In Du Magazine (Dec./Jan. 1995/1996), Switzerland.
15. Interview in B. Ellerson (Ed.), Sisters of the Screen: Women of Africa on Film, Video and Television. (2000). Trenton, NJ & Asmara, Eritrea.

Awards/Recognition:

1. Vanguard Award: NBO Film Festival Nairobi, 2025
2. Women in Film Award: Most Influential Woman in Film, Kenya, 2023
3. Kenya Film Classification Board Award for Best Film Practitioner in Kenya, 2017
4. Best music track for film “The Battle of the Sacred Tree, Cineweek, Nairobi, 1998
5. Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame Award for ‘Best Foreign Film’ Oakland, California, US, 1996
6. Nomination: M-Net African Film Competition, Johannesburg for the film “The Battle of the Sacred Tree”, 1996
7. Office Catholique International du Cinema (OCIC), for the film “The Battle of the Sacred Tree”, (Milan), 1995
8. Black International Cinema Award for the film “Der Kranke Vogel” ‘Best Berlin Resident film’, 1991

Contacts

Email Address: kinyanjui_wanjiru@yahoo.com