Nijla Mu'min

Nijla Mu'min is a writer and filmmaker from the East Bay Area. Named one of 25 New Faces of Independent Film by Filmmaker Magazine in 2017, she tells stories about black girls and women who find themselves between worlds and identities.

Her short films have screened at festivals and venues across the country, including Outfest, Pan African Film Festival, and BAMcinématek. Her filmmaking and screenwriting have been supported by the Sundance Institute, IFP, Film Independent, the Islamic Scholarship Fund, and the Princess Grace Foundation.

In 2014, she was selected for the Sundance Institute Screenwriters Intensive, and she was the winner of the Grand Jury Prize for Best Screenplay at the 2014 Urbanworld Film Festival, for her script Noor. She was selected as the first-prize winner of the 2016 Islamic Scholarship Fund's Film Grant, and in 2017, her film Jinn was selected for IFP's Narrative Lab and as a recipient of SFFILM's Rainin Film Grant. In July, Nijla attended the 2017 Sundance Institute Sound and Music Design Lab at Skywalker Ranch.

She is currently completing her first feature film, Jinn, starring Zoe Renee and Simone Missick (Netflix’s “Luke Cage”). Her short film Dream was recently acquired by Issa Rae Productions (“Insecure,” HBO) for online streaming. She is a 2013 dual-degree graduate of CalArts MFA Film Directing and Writing Programs. Her writing appears in VICE, Shadow and Act, The East Bay Express, and The Los Angeles Times.

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