Shayla Mini-Site

Awards

Shayla has been recognized for its coming-of-age storytelling, dramatic craft, editing, visual effects, and performance. These honors reflect the film’s blend of intimate character work and heightened fantasy.

5 Award Wins

Award Win

Couch Film Festival

Winner, Best Coming-of-Age Film

The Couch Film Festival award recognizes Shayla as a coming-of-age story built around identity, resilience, and the moment a young person begins to understand her own power.

This win speaks directly to the heart of the film: Shayla’s movement from isolation and uncertainty toward self-recognition. It is a fitting honor for a story centered on the emotional stakes of growing up while being challenged, underestimated, and seen through other people’s expectations.

Award Win

Oregon Short Film Festival

Winner, Best Drama Film

The Oregon Short Film Festival recognition highlights the dramatic foundation of Shayla. Beneath the fantasy elements, the film is grounded in performance, emotional stakes, and the difficult choices facing a young girl under pressure from her peers and her environment.

The Best Drama Film win affirms the film’s balance of intimate character work and heightened cinematic language. It recognizes the story not only for its visual style, but for the emotional journey that gives those images meaning.

Award Win

Windsor International Black Film Festival

Winner, Best Editing

The Best Editing award from the Windsor International Black Film Festival honors the rhythm and structure of Shayla. The edit carries the audience between grounded school-day realism, emotional confrontation, and the emergence of Shayla’s inner world.

This recognition is especially meaningful because the film depends on timing, restraint, and escalation. The cuts shape the tension between what Shayla experiences internally and what the outside world can see.

Winner, Best Visual Effects, New York Film and Actress Awards

Award Win

New York Film & Actress Awards

Winner, Best Visual Effects

The Best Visual Effects award from the New York Film & Actress Awards recognizes the fantasy language of Shayla. The effects were designed to support the character’s emotional reality rather than overwhelm it.

The visual effects function as an extension of Shayla’s inner life. They reveal the pressure, power, and mystery surrounding her journey while keeping the story focused on identity, and self-discovery.

Winner, Best Young Actress, Keira Davies, New York Film and Actress Awards

Award Win

New York Film & Actress Awards

Winner, Best Young Actress (13–18), Keira Davies

Keira Davies’ Best Young Actress win recognizes the emotional center of Shayla. Her performance carries the film’s quiet tension, vulnerability, and growing strength.

The role asks Shayla to move through fear, confusion, resistance, and awakening. Keira’s work gives the film its human anchor and allows the fantasy elements to feel personal, grounded, and emotionally earned.

Festival Recognition

Official Selections, Nominations & Honorable Mentions

The festival run for Shayla includes official selections, nominations, semi-finalist recognition, and honorable mentions in addition to the film’s award wins.

Official Selections / Festival Appearances

Windsor International Black Film Festival
Tacoma Film Festival
Tri-Cities International Film Festival
Universal Kids Film Festival
Denton Black Film Festival
Black August Film Festival
Oregon Short Film Festival
European Short Awards
Hawaii International Film Awards
Washington Underground Film Festival

Nominations

Best Short Film — Windsor International Black Film Festival
Best Actress — Keira Davies — Windsor International Black Film Festival
Best VFX Nomination — European Short Awards

Additional Recognition

Hawaii International Film Awards — Semi-Finalist
Washington Underground Film Festival — Honorable Mention

Screenings, Press & Collaboration Inquiries

For festival programming, press coverage, interviews, screenings, or collaboration inquiries, contact Radio Tribe Productions.

Contact Radio Tribe