Mariam Zaidi is a South Asian documentary filmmaker based in Toronto, Canada. Mariam first received a grant from Breakthroughs Film Festival for her directorial debut Safar: Journey (2014). This short went on to premiere at a number of festivals world-wide and won Best Short Documentary at the We Care Film Festival in the UAE.

After completing her MFA in Documentary Media at Ryerson University, Mariam went on to work in various roles for high-profile Canadian documentary films that have travelled the world including, Min Sook Lee’s Migrant Dreams, Nisha Pahuja's The World Before Her, and Noemi Weis’ Milk. She is a Hot Docs Doc Accelerator and Shaw Media Hot Docs Diverse Voices fellow.

In 2017 her short film Over Time received the WIFT & DGC award at Reel Asian Film Festival.

Alongside her independent film work, Mariam holds the position of Associate Programmer for Canadian films at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival and oversees the growing Breakthroughs Film Festival as Executive Director.