Hira is a filmmaker based in Los Angeles and Pakistan
Contact: hirasherazfilms@gmail.com
Hira is a filmmaker who tells stories in both documentary and narrative form.
She is drawn to stories of ordinary people navigating extraordinary worlds.
She was born in Northwestern Pakistan, earned her undergraduate degree with distinction in Film & Television from the National College of Arts, Lahore, and an MFA from the American Film Institute Conservatory in Los Angeles, CA.
Hira’s first narrative work was a short called City of Men, which screened at the Oscar-qualifying Tasveer Film Festival and won Best Short Film at the Muslim International Film Festival in Toronto. She received a film grant from Novo Amor to write and produce her short The Round Lake, which premiered at the Austin Film Festival and later screened at UN Women Deliver Arts & Film Festival and Tasveer. Her next narrative short, Solatia, had its international premiere at the Red Sea International Film Festival.
She is a recipient of the AAUW International Fellowship and the Indigenous Voices Film Grant from DC Dogs, and was selected for Locarno’s Artists Program.
Two of her feature films written at AFI Conservatory are in development. Her screenplay, The Boy and The Cobbler was recognized as a Semifinalist for both the Humanitas Carol Mendelsohn Drama Award and the Austin Film Festival Screenplay Competition. It was also accepted into the rounds of the Sundance Development Track. Her other feature, Model College for Girls, was selected for the Tasveer Film Market.
In addition to being behind the camera, Hira trained as a 35mm film projectionist under master projectionist Tom Ruff.
She shot her upcoming short film Burn which is set to release in 2026. The film is produced by Zarrar Kahn (whose debut feature In Flames premiered at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight and won Best Feature at Red Sea) along with Mina Hussain (TIFF, Locarno) and Carol Ann Noronha (Producer of In Flames, Queen of my Dreams, Ghost School). Executive Produced by Rita Meher and Safi Rauf. The short is being made in partnership with PILL, an organization supporting rehabilitation programs for burn survivors.
Her documentary Dragons of Wakhi was featured in a Forbes article.
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