Kira Bursky is a filmmaker, screenwriter, and artist currently based out of Asheville, NC.

Kira Bursky at the opening night of her film installation "Considerations of Infinity."

All Around Artsy was founded in 2009 by Kira Bursky, a vagabonding storyteller with an insatiable hunger for magic. She has produced over 60 films and music videos that have screened at festivals around the world from Los Angeles to Berlin to Beijing. In 2014 Kira was recognized as National YoungArts Finalist and was a finalist in the White House Student Film Festival where she had the honor of screening her work in the White House. In 2015 Kira was selected as the Best Emerging Female Filmmaker at the National Film Festival for Talented Youth (NFFTY).[1] In 2016 she was featured in Seventeen Magazine as the April issue's Power Girl and received the Emerging Artist to Watch grant through Le Couvent artist residency in France. Kira and her creations have been featured through NPR,[2] Out Magazine,[3] Pride[4][5] and No Film School[6] to name a few. Her YouTube channel has over 34,000+ subscribers and 16 million+ views.[7]

"Bursky is just 23 years old, but the Asheville filmmaker is already on a trajectory to becoming one of America’s most incisive and distinctive auteurs." – Matt Peiken, Arts Producer BPR + NPR[8]

Background edit

Kira Bursky, originally from Upper Nyack, NY, attended Asheville High School's School of Inquiry and Life Sciences program for one year and Evergreen Community Charter School for middle school.[9] She also attended the Carolina Film Institute for one year at age 13.

She later attended high school at the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan as a Motion Picture Arts major, graduating in 2014. She worked at documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock's New York-based film production company, Warrior Poets, as a post-production intern.[10]

Awards edit

Her works have been featured and awarded prizes at over 100 domestic and international film festivals including the All-American High School Film Festival,[11][12] the Chicago International Children's Film Festival, the Colchester International Film Festival, Guam International Film Festival, the White House Student Film Festival, Princeton Student Film Festival, and the Cannes Film Festival.[13][14][15]


Year Result Festival Award Work
2014 Winner Mosaic Film Festival Best Overall Girly
2014 Winner Lovett School High School Film Fest Best U.S Narrative
2015 Winner Made-in-Michigan Film Festival Best Academic Film
2014 Winner Lovett School High School Film Fest Best U.S. Animation What Are You?
2014 Winner Mosaic Film Festival Best Overall We're Okay
2014 Winner All American High School Film Festival Best Overall Film[16]
2015 Winner National Film Festival For Talented Youth Best Emerging Female Filmmaker
2014 Winner Highway 61 Best Student - 2nd Place
2016 Winner Horror Hour Best Horror High School Short Film
2016 Winner Ramūno Ateljė Independent International Film Awards Best Teenager Film Really Looking
2015 Winner 24 Hour Film Racing Best Editing & Best Sound Design It's Just You
2016 Winner George Lindsey UNA Film Festival Best Youth Filmmaker Tree Hugger
2015 Winner Laguna Film Festival Jury Award for Best Youth Film +

Audience Award for Best Youth Film

2016 Winner Festival Internacional de Cine y Audiovisual Infantil y Juvenil Best Film in +13 Audio Visual
2015 Winner StarLite Film Festival Best Domestic Student Short Demons in Disguise
2016 Winner Little Elephant Best Maxi 2
2014 Winner White House Student Film Festival Finalist Hello From Malaysia
2014 Winner MY HERO International Film Festival Best High School Narrative - 2nd Place
2015 Winner Lovett School High School Film Fest Best U.S. Animation Warm Rush
2014 Winner Josiah Media Festival Best Experimental - 2nd Place
2015 Winner Brighton Youth Film Festival Best International Short Film Hattie
2015 Winner Seattle Horror 48 Hour Film Project Best Film Adulthood
2016 Winner Huntsville 48 Hour Film Project Best Film Footplant
2017 Winner Music Video Asheville Best Music Video + Best Editing Dancing Children
2017 Winner FilmSPARK Best Kids and Family Film
2017 Winner Music Video Asheville Best Visual Design We Are the People
2017 Winner 100 Words Film Festival Best Scripted Film Fake Emma
2017 Winner North Carolina Family Film Festival 2017 Best NC Short To and From
2017 Winner Grenada Afterglow Film Festival Best AfterTHOUGHT
2018 Winner Asheville 48 Hour Film Project Best Film She Once Was Distant
2018 Winner New Orleans 48 Hour Film Project Best Film Runner Up Demon Pills
2018 Winner Music Video Asheville Best Visual Design You Help Me Fall Asleep
2017 Winner All-American High School Film Festival Best College Doc Close to the Window
2018 Winner Planet Why's YUP Selected Audience Choice Award
2018 Winner FilmPlaya Golden Pocket Pistol Period.
2018 Winner Berlin Liberi Film Festival Best in Fest
2019 Winner Jim Thorpe Independent Film Festival Best Experimental Film[17]
2019 Winner Music Video Asheville Best Music Video + Best Editing Carolina Stomp


Featured works edit

  • Wild Flowers (2016) - 10 million+ views on YouTube[18]
  • Tree Hugger (2015) - 4 million+ views on YouTube[19]
  • Adulthood (2015) - 1 million+ views on YouTube[20]
  • Period. (2019)
  • We're Okay (2014)
  • Closet Made of Sheets (2017)
  • Demon Pills (2017)
  • To and From (2016)
  • Really Looking (2016)
  • She Once Was Distant (2018)
  • Fake Emma (2018)
  • Girly (2013)
  • Foreshadow (2019)

References edit

  1. ^ "Young Women In Film". NFFTY. Retrieved 2019-12-21.
  2. ^ Peiken, Matt. "Asheville Filmmaker On The Rise Has Turned Her Apartment Into Intimate Public Installation". www.bpr.org. Retrieved 2019-12-20.
  3. ^ "Kira Bursky's New Short Film Fights Bisexual Erasure in Sheet Forts". www.out.com. 2018-02-09. Retrieved 2019-12-20.
  4. ^ "This Magical Queer Music Video Will Make Your Day". www.pride.com. 2019-05-31. Retrieved 2019-12-20.
  5. ^ "This Magical Short Film About Queer Female Desire Will Make Your Day". www.pride.com. 2018-07-27. Retrieved 2019-12-20.
  6. ^ "Give Some Feedback to Get Some Feedback on Your Film With the Free App Critiqr". No Film School. 2018-10-05. Retrieved 2019-12-20.
  7. ^ "Kira Bursky". YouTube. Retrieved 2019-12-15.
  8. ^ Peiken, Matt. "Asheville Filmmaker On The Rise Has Turned Her Apartment Into Intimate Public Installation". www.bpr.org. Retrieved 2019-12-15.
  9. ^ "Mountain Xpress". Mountain Xpress. Retrieved 2016-02-20.
  10. ^ "Kira Bursky on her new project Big Little Filmmaker". www.gigspotting.net. Retrieved 2016-02-20.
  11. ^ "2014 Finalists & Winners". All American High School Film Festival. Retrieved 2016-02-20.
  12. ^ "The Future of Cinema: One Film Student at a Time". crescendo.interlochen.org. Retrieved 2016-02-20.
  13. ^ "Asheville High alum selected for Cannes Film Festival". Citizen Times. Retrieved 2016-02-20.
  14. ^ "Demons in Disguise - NFFTY". NFFTY. Archived from the original on 2016-04-11. Retrieved 2016-02-20.
  15. ^ "Kira Bursky". CelebrityImages.org. Retrieved 2016-02-20.
  16. ^ "Finalists & Winners". All American High School Film Festival. Retrieved 2019-12-21.
  17. ^ "AWARDS 2019". jtiff. Retrieved 2019-12-21.
  18. ^ Wild Flowers - love trio fantasy short film, retrieved 2019-12-15
  19. ^ Tree Hugger - high school fantasy drama short film, retrieved 2019-12-15
  20. ^ Adulthood - psychologically creepy short film, retrieved 2019-12-15