Dikit

Gabriela Serrano is a filmmaker, editor, and visual artist born in Manila in 1996.

She is a graduate of the Multimedia Arts program at the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde School of Design and Arts, and an alumna of the Ricky Lee Scriptwriting Workshop. In 2022, she was named one of CNN Philippines Life's "Eight emerging Filipino directors to watch out for."

She began her creative practice at 15 as an illustrator, creating artworks for CNN Philippines Life, The Philippine Star, and Esquire Philippines. She has since shifted her focus towards motion pictures, and has created a number of personal narrative works combining the moving image with art, imbuing her filmmaking style with a distinctly experimental and tactile approach. She has worked as a freelance editor across different video and television projects, trained in directing actors with JP Carpio of Linao Films, and has also interned under directors Dwein Baltazar, John Torres of Los Otros Films, and Paco Raterta. Most recently, she was an editor, as well as an illustrator/animator, for the Film Independent Spirit Awards nominated FX series, "THE CHOE SHOW."

Her 2021 Film Development Council of the Philippines-supported short film "DIKIT," a modern horror-drama retelling of Jose Nepomuceno’s classic Filipino silent film, "ANG MANANANGGAL," won the Best Film and Best Director awards at the Mit Out Sound Silent Film Competition at the International Silent Film Festival Manila, and was subsequently named one of CNN Philippines Life’s Best Filipino Films of 2021. Dikit made its international premiere at the 38th Los Angeles Asia Pacific Film Festival, and has been selected as one of 12 competition finalists in the Short Film category of the Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival in August of 2022.

With two new short films in development, she hopes to continue telling deeply introspective stories about feminine identity, generational divide, family, and youth in the Philippines.