DGA Student Film Jury Award winner | NAACP Image Award nominee
Kira Powell is a Los Angeles–based writer-director and SAG-AFTRA actor who holds an MFA in Directing from the American Film Institute Conservatory. Drawing on her Black American and Ecuadorian heritage, she centers women and girls of color in bilingual films that move between intimate drama and psychological horror. Her psychologically charged stories explore the complicated relationship between love, fear, and protection—and how loss and social pressures can turn the desire to keep someone safe into the very thing that confines them.
Her AFI thesis short Best Eyes, a coming-of-age drama, won the Directors Guild of America Jury Award for Outstanding Directing at the 2024 DGA Student Film Awards. The film premiered at the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival (LALIFF), was nominated for Outstanding Short Form (Live Action) at the 2026 NAACP Image Awards, and won First Place in the Afro-Latino Short Film Competition presented by AAFCA and LEJA.
Her psychological horror short The Good Mother premiered at the Screamfest Horror Film Festival, and her work has screened at festivals across the U.S. and abroad, including Oscar-qualifying festivals.
Kira was selected as a 2026 Tomorrow’s Filmmakers Today fellow, a program held in partnership with the Hola México Film Festival and supported by the Golden Globe Foundation. Best Eyes won Best TFT Short. She was also selected for the 2026 AWD Directing the Actor Lab with Jennifer Warren. She is currently developing her debut feature, The Second Child—an intimate psychological thriller exploring grief, maternal protection, and immigrant isolation—which was selected for the 2026 Cine Qua Non Storylines Lab.
As an actor, Kira’s work spans film, television, commercials, and theater. Her credits include Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead’s critically acclaimed sci-fi horror feature The Endless, more than 20 national commercials, and her award-winning solo show Caught in the Mix—an exploration of Afro-Latina identity, colorism, belonging, and self-acceptance that later informed Best Eyes.
Outside of filmmaking, Kira is an avid traveler who has visited more than 40 countries and finds joy in journaling, singing, and discovering great food wherever she goes.
AWARDS & NOMINATIONS
NAACP Image Award Nominee, Best Eyes, 2026
Best Narrative Short - Compton Film Festival, Best Eyes, 2026
Best Short - Hola Mexico Film Festival, Best Eyes, 2026
Nomination - Best Student Film - Horror Haus Film Festival, The Good Mother, 2026
1st Prize - AAFCA/LEJA Afro-Latino Short Film Competition , Best Eyes, 2025
Best Student Film - Georgia Latino Film Festival, Best Eyes, 2025
Grand Jury Prize - Best Narrative Short - Awareness Film Festival, Borders, 2025
Directors Guild of America Jury Award - DGA Student Film Awards - Best Eyes, 2024