Amir Ganjavie

Amir Ganjavie—a Golden Globe voter and multifaceted cultural figure based in Toronto—holds two doctoral degrees: a Ph.D. in Communication and Culture from York University and a second Ph.D. in Philosophy from McMaster University. His first dissertation drew extensively on Hegelian philosophy and utopian theories to analyze contemporary utopian cinema, while his second engaged in a philosophical examination of democratic liberalism, interrogating the conceptual tensions between freedom, public space, and the encroachment of privatization.
Fascinated by utopian and alternative spaces in both urban life and cinema, Amir has published extensively on the subject. He is the author of two books: Utopia and Its Discontents and Pour une ville qui marche (in French), which focuses on walkable neighborhoods. He also recently co-edited two special issues on Iranian cinema for Film International and Asian Cinema, and edited the Persian-language volume Humanities of the Other, a collection of essays on the Dardenne Brothers.
Beyond academia, Amir contributes regularly to a range of international film and cultural publications, including MovieMaker, Film International, MUBI Notebook, Senses of Cinema, Offscreen, and Brightlight. He serves as editor-in-chief of both Universal Cinema Journal and Phoenix Journal. An active figure in the cultural community, he is also the CEO of the Cyrus International Film Festival and the Phoenix Cultural Centre of Toronto. In addition, he is a founding member of NaMaNa Cinema, a nonprofit film club affiliated with the University of Toronto.
Amir began his filmmaking career in 2018 with the co-direction of Pendulum. In 2021, he collaborated with Nasim Naghavi on the COVID-era psychological thriller Into Schrödinger’s Box. Most recently, he completed two feature films: About Maya and Perchance to Dream.

Contributions